Forensic science international
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The medical examiner system has been steadily abolished in Japan. Instead, medicolegal investigations are entrusted by the police to medical practitioners, who are not permitted to perform autopsies. The necessity for the medical examiner system was assessed through inquest records in Hyogo, one of the three prefectures which still have medical examiner systems. ⋯ Medical practitioners, who certified the cause-of-death as "heart failure" without advising an autopsy, were regularly entrusted with inquests. It is likely that the causes-of-death for medicolegal cases may be questionable since more than 85% of all medicolegal deaths were investigated by medical practitioners, which may cause inaccuracy in at least 3-7% of mortality statistics. It is necessary to educate medical practitioners concerning the importance of mortality statistics and ICD and on the validity of autopsies, in order to obtain accurate mortality statistics from medicolegal cases.