Foley Square

"Why did my government do this?"

Following one of my talks about the saiban-in system in Tokyo, a Japanese woman in the audience exclaimed "why did my government do this? The current system is just fine!" The Asahi Shimbun's editorial today entitled "Japan must learn to better convey its opinion on issues to the world" isn't about the saiban-in system, but it identifies a problem that the new jury system may help adresss:

[L]et's face facts: For Japan to have a diplomatic strategy that conveys its views to the world, our society must allow -- and encourage -- free, uninhibited and educated discussion. Is this guaranteed today in our schools and places of work? Or have we as a nation become too passive, too accepting of inward-looking thinking as the norm, smothering all dissent? Are our people being trained as they should be to debate with and persuade those who do not share our values?

Missoulian - UM associate helps steer Japan's judiciary

Link: Missoulian - UM associate helps steer Japan's judiciary.

TOKYO - With the assistance of a New York lawyer associated with the University of Montana, Japan's criminal court cases will soon work their way through a trial system resembling - at least in part - that of the United States. The most important change in the works: Jurors will be randomly recruited among the Japanese citizenry to serve for one trial, said Robert Precht, co-director of the Juries and Democracy Program at UM's Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center. Yet court decisions will still be rendered in a very different way in Japan, he said. Presently, Japanese criminal cases are presided over by a panel of three judges, who decide guilt or innocence, as well as sentencing.

Starting in May 2009, the country will implement what it calls “saiban-in,” a panel of three judges and six lay citizen jurors, who will hear evidence and then vote on guilt or innocence. They will decide together on sentencing. Precht considers the shift in rendering criminal justice here nothing short of revolutionary for Japanese citizens. All of a sudden, they will start receiving summons to come to court, serve on saiban-in panels and make decisions that can literally determine the life or death of fellow citizens.

Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, Tokyo

About 25 correspondents from various news organizations were in attendance for my talk "Japan's New Jury System: Important Consequences for Asia." I had invited as my guest a prominent judge. We both expected that he would sit in the audience, but the talk's organizers suggested he sit with me at the dais. This was a good move. After my talk, the reporters had many questions. Although the judge originally expected to be a guest, he graciously agreed to help me answer the reporters' questions. Indeed, he was the real authority in the room.

One Japanese participant said that bringing back a jury system in Japan would be useless because current police practices -- including prolonged detention of suspects and forced confessions -- would defeat the reforms. I noted that the new system may actually lead to reforms in police practices. In cases of confessions, police officers will now have to come to court and explain to ordinary citizens the circumstances in which the police extracted the confession. In addition, there seems to be a growing feeling in Japan that in in order to present confessions to lay people, the confessions should be videotaped. Videotaped confessions would be a huge reform -- one that, alas, has not been implemented in most jurisdictions in the U.S.

Fukuoka Bar Association, Fukuoka

The audience was very interesting -- a group of about 50 people composed of defense lawyers, prosecutors, judges, and law students. Knowing how segregated the legal community in Japan is, I was quite astonished to see such a diverse group. I don't think I've ever been to an event in Japan where defense lawyers, prosecutors, and judges willingly sat together.