In Which I Go To Japan

Listen to this article

Things have been quiet here lately, but my excuse is good. I've been in Japan, talking about juries.

As I wrote in September, Japan is in the middle of a historic transition. For the first time in living memory, serious criminal trials in Japan will be decided not by three-judge panels as they are now, but by a group of six lay citizens and three judges deliberating together. The saiban-in, as this group will be called, will bring the voices of jurors into Japan's criminal justice system — and with them oral advocacy, jury instructions, an evidence code, and trials over consecutive days, to name only a few of the changes that are basic to us but unnecessary without a jury.

Since I first wrote about this, I've been in touch off and on with Rob Precht, the New York lawyer who has been working with lawyers in Japan to prepare for the new system. Rob writes about his experiences at his blog Foley Square. His posts on the varied Japanese reactions to the idea of saiban-in are compelling. Both lawyers and potential jurors are by turns worried, confused, and doubtful, and then curious, confident, and full of hope.

One topic the Japanese keep coming back to, understandably, is the stress this new jury service will create for jurors themselves. Lay people are being asked for the first time to leave their homes and jobs; sit at the court's table in a public courtroom; listen to what will often be horrible evidence; and share critical decisions, in field they know little about, with judges to whom their natural instinct is to defer. When Toyo University social psychology professor Kaoru Kurosawa was planning a symposium on juror stress, Rob suggested that I might be able to speak on how we experience and respond to juror stress in this country — and the next thing I knew, I was in Japan.

It was only a few days, but it was the professional experience of a lifetime. In the next several days, I'll post about it as best I can.

My photo of kimonos at the Sunday morning market at the Yasukuni shrine, Creative Commons license.