Wasabi <blue.mountains@org.invalid> wrote:
> I was recently watching the TV series Jikou Keisatsu (statute of 
> limitations police), the premise of which is that in Japan a crime cannot 
> be prosecuted once 15 years have elapsed. Is this really the case, even for 
> serious crimes like murder? If so it seems a surprising regulation, in most 
> countries such time limits normally only affect civil cases like debt etc 
> and not serious crimes.

It actually isn't that uncommon; the US has statute of limitations on many
things (and murder used to be one of them). Simply, the difficulty in producing
witnesses in one's defense after a long time has passed was deemed (rightly
or wrongly) a hinderance to due process.

Mike