- Juries in Japan
The
jury law was first introduced to Japan in 1923 by the leadership of the Prime MinisterKato Tomosaburo . The jury system was not used very often at that time. The jury law has been suspended since 1943.New law
On
May 28 ,2004 ,Diet of Japan enacted the law which requires selected citizens to take part in criminal court trials of certain severe crimes and make decisions together with professional judges both on guilt and on the sentence. These citizens are called “Saiban-in” (裁判員;lay judge). Saiban-in are randomly selected out of the electoral register. In most of the cases the judicial panel is composed of six Saiban-in and three professional judges. In cases where there is no substantial dispute over guilt, the panel will be composed of four Saiban-in and one professional judge. Unlike previous law, the defendants are not allowed to waive trial by Saiban-in. Saiban-in system will be implemented byMay 2009 .Controversy of the new law
As with any new system, there is an apprehension by some about the new law. Adversaries of the law assert that Japan has some tradition of submissiveness to authority that will lead to the juries always following the judges' opinionFact|date=February 2008. Just as is the case in most countries, there is a reluctance to be selected for jury duty. Japanese polls are consistent with other developed jury systems where 70 percent of the population has a reluctance to serve as a juror. [cite web
url = http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/world/asia/16jury.html?ex=1342238400&en=e03e6e32d7b87f74&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
title = Japan Learns Dreaded Task of Jury Duty
publisher = "New York Times "
accessdate = 2007-07-16
first = Norimitsu
last = Onishi
date =2007-07-16 ]References
Anderson & Ambler, http://law.anu.edu.au/anjel/documents/ZJapanR/ZJapanR21_HP07_Anderson%20Ambler.pdf
External links
* [http://www.moj.go.jp/SAIBANIN/pdf/pamphlet-e.pdf Start of the Saiban-in System (Pamphlet by the Ministry of Justice)] For an English translation of the law see Anderson & Dear, http://www.hawaii.edu/aplpj/pdfs/v6.01_Anderson.pdf#search=%22saiban-in%20translation%22
* [http://blog.goo.ne.jp/koyakikaku/e/a881dbf74503683e97c492171a487683 裁判員制度は日本に不要だ！！]
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