37 - Coroner

【監察医、kansatsui】

[Lit. Inspector (監察) of medicine (医).]

When someone dies, a physician first distinguishes between illness or injury, accident or crime.

If the death is confirmed to have been caused by a crime, an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death, but not all causes of death can be clearly discerned.

Especially in the case of sudden death, it is often difficult to distinguish whether the death was caused by illness, accident, or crime. In such cases, doctors are required to report the body to the police as dying under mysterious circumstances. The corpse is then examined by a specialist in the presence of a police officer.

That specialist is a coroner, who follows a series of procedures called the Medical Examiner System, which institutionalizes the process from the discovery of a corpse to the examination of the body.

If the cause of death is still unknown after the coroner's examination, the body will be submitted to a judicial autopsy to determine it.

Coroners are professionals who have studied forensic medicine, the study of crime, and other juridically critical medical research related to corpses. By performing autopsies, coroners are able to determine the cause and time of death of a cadaver, important information in criminal investigations that plays a major role in solving crimes.

However, the medical examiner system is currently in effect only in five cities (Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe), whereas in other cities there are no specialists who perform autopsies or examinations on the bodies of the deceased.

This is because it would require a huge budget to introduce a medical examiner to each city. However, the introduction of a nationwide medical examiner system is certainly desirable to reduce the number of crimes with ambiguous causes of death that end up being buried in the meantime.