College Women's Association of Japan, Tokyo

I presented a luncheon talk to this well respected organization describing the saiban-in system, and using examples from the World Trade Center bombing trial to illustrate how trial practice will change in Japan with the new system. During the spirited Q & A, a foreign woman said that the saiban-in system would never work in the country "because Japanese don't have opinions." As the meeting broke up, a young Japanese woman came up to the foreign woman and said "I'm shocked you said that!"