Chief Justice TOKURA explained the current situation of digitalization of court proceedings in Japan and pointed out the difficulty of changing the paper-based court business which we are accustomed to. He stated that the Japanese judiciary would like to learn from the courts in the UK, where advanced efforts are made to introduce digital technology into the traditional legal systems. Lord Reed explained that digitalization of court proceedings progressed on the occasion of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK and they are in the process of making comprehensive change of court business by effective use of technology. He also explained that burden on judges has not become so serious under the court system where oral hearings are emphasized, while the quantity of documents submitted by the parties has increased, according to the progress of the digitalization.

There was also a lively discussion on strengthening judicial exchanges between the UK and Japan. Lord Hodge suggested some ideas of developing the current relations, and Justice NAGAMINE responded that the Japanese judiciary would be happy to further discuss the details of such exchanges.