The reforms of 2000 focused on holding offenders accountable for the crimes and lowered the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 14 years. The new laws also strengthened the rights of victims and their relatives and allowed family court judges to sanction the parents of juvenile offenders. Critics of the 2000 reforms charge that the reforms interfere with the ability of the system to achieve its main purpose: the protection of the child. Yet in January 2005 a new set of reforms were proposed that further shifted the focus of juvenile justice away from the interests of the child and toward the protection of society. Changes ushered in with the 2000 reforms to Japan’s juvenile justice system have pushed the orientation of juvenile justice away from its welfare focus on the protection of the child and toward a more punitive approach to juvenile offenders. The author reviews the history of juvenile justice in Japan, focusing on the Juvenile Law 1948, which provided a comprehensive set of principles and procedures that focused on “protective measures relating to the character, correction and environmental adjustment of delinquent juveniles.” Police and prosecutors were obliged to refer juvenile offenders to the family court where they were protected from the type of vigorous investigation process that is integral to a more punitive type of justice system. A series of high-profile violent murders committed by adolescents in Japan during the late 1990s caused a moral panic concerning youth crime and violence. In response, the government established a legislative committee to make proposals on possible changes to youth justice. Widespread public opinion was that the juvenile justice system was too lenient toward young offenders and that the system was non-responsive to the needs of victims. Table, references