Psychiatrist Morimitsu Sakihama sentenced for leaking confidential client information

April 15, 2009

The Nara (Japan) District Court sentenced psychiatrist Morimitsu Sakihama to four months in prison, suspended for three years, having been convicted the same day of a violation of Article 134 of Japan’s Penal Code, which prohibits medical practitioners, lawyers and notaries (or those who previously had these occupations) from leaking confidential information gained through their work, without a proper reason.  Sakimama was commissioned to conduct a psychiatric evaluation of a boy who set fire to his home and killed his mother and two siblings in June 2006.  Sakihama later shared an expert’s opinion of the boy’s mental condition he had compiled, as well as the boys’ deposition, with a freelance journalist, who later wrote a book about the boy. This is the first court ruling on record in Japan on a defendant accused of disclosing a secret under Article 134 of the Penal Code.  (“Psychiatrist convicted of leaking depositions of teenager who started fatal fire,” Mainichi Daily News, 15 April 2009.)