[Relationship among "kenshi" (inquest), "kenshi" (postmortem examination) and "ken-an" (postmortem inspection) in Japan]

Inquest ([symbol: see text]) and postmortem examination ([symbol: see text]) have the same pronunciation of "kenshi" in Japan. So we are inclined to use these terms with confusion or substitution. We discussed the differences among three "kenshis" adding to postmortem inspection ([symbol: see text]; "ken-an") with investigating references. Many forensic scientists described that inquests were done by public prosecutors and inspections by medical doctors. But there were various interpretations of postmortem examination, e.g. "postmortem examination is done by public prosecutors or police", "it is the same as inspection by medical doctor", "it is one of the aids of inquest", "it is also including forensic autopsy". Although being no differences between the two kenshis written by two kinds of different Chinese characters ([symbol: see text]). This is caused an only problem in writing Japanese languages, it happens especially when we have to use Chinese characters for everyday use. In order to define this postmortem examination in Japan, we paid attention to corpse procedures. We made a figure to include each interpretation and to understand that postmortem examination had several meanings from a narrow sense to a wide sense. We suggested that the most confident definition was of the widest sense which meant the inspection and autopsy by doctors and the inspection by public prosecutors or police.