Tokyo High Court

The Tokyo High Court is one of the eight high courts of Japan, sitting in the Kasumigaseki district of Chiyoda ward in Tokyo. Japan divides its high-court system among eight territories, with one court each at Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Sendai, Sapporo and Takamatsu, and every court is led by a president and a bench of high court judges. A case is normally heard by three judges, although five sit in rare matters such as those touching insurrection. The court hears appeals from judgments given by district courts and family courts in the first instance, apart from matters reserved to the Supreme Court. Criminal appeals come straight to the high courts, while civil appeals are first handled by district courts. It also holds exclusive original jurisdiction over cases involving quasi-judicial agencies, including the power to rescind their decisions. Since April 2005 the Intellectual Property High Court has operated as a special branch of the Tokyo High Court, dealing only with intellectual property disputes such as patent appeals.