[SUMMARY] Four years have passed since the death investigation and identification act was implemented and a new type of autopsy established. We discuss what influences the introduction of these autopsies has had on the death investigation system in Japan. We obtained the following results after analyzing data from the Japan police agency and from medico-legal autopsies in Chiba University and Tokyo University. The number of autopsies generated by the new act overwhelmed the reduction of other types of autopsies, and the total number of medico-legal autopsies increased. However, the autopsies produced by the new act were largely performed in a few areas in which the autopsy rate had been relatively high. Moreover, the application of the act differed according to every prefectural police force. In Chiba the unidentified bodies were autopsied as judicial autopsies, although in Tokyo many of them were autopsied in compliance with the new act. The problems of the application of the new act are also indicated in other issues. Care for the bereaved, consultations with forensic pathologists, and reports to other organizations have not been considered seriously. Further, the new act should be applied more comprehensively to treatment-related deaths and deaths by self-inflicted traffic accidents.\n

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