A parliamentary panel Friday approved a bill submitted by the government to reform the country¡¯s retrial system.

The Judicial Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the country¡¯s parliament, passed the bill to revise the Code of Criminal Procedure by a majority vote, with support from the Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling camp and Sanseito.

The passage came after the bill underwent revisions mainly to add a supplementary provision stipulating that the prohibition on the use of evidence for purposes other than its intended one be subject to a regular review of the system every five years.