Japan's 1st jury trial to start Monday in Tokyo

Sunday 02nd August, 07:14 AM JST

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14 Comments

gamera at 07:36 AM JST - 2nd August

I hate jury duty. Good luck to all.
Beelzebub at 08:14 AM JST - 2nd August

Japanese don't seem to have much of an attention span these days. I wonder what the rules will be regarding use of their keitai, reading manga, listening to iPods and dozing off during the trial sessions.
elbudamexicano at 08:44 AM JST - 2nd August

This old dirty fool should HANG! RIP poor killed South Korean woman gets stabbed because her son knocks over this idiots plastic bottles? It does not make any sense and time to put him away, by hanging!
noborito at 09:13 AM JST - 2nd August

So let me get this right... Foreigners are going to be the mail group to use this system, and with all the supposed foreign crime in Japan, the first trial is a Japanese person who kills a foreigner? Why? o he wants a free pass. "We Japanese" against "You foreigners". I bet he will bring up "the man always spoke in Korean and it just drove me crazy." Everyone will then go back into that room and agree and sentence him to "time severed" Sad indeed.
bobbafett at 09:37 AM JST - 2nd August

None of its any good without the police interview being recorded and submitted as evidence anyway.
WMD at 09:59 AM JST - 2nd August

No doubt this japanese is already celebrating his acquital. There's no way "we japanese" can ever find a japanese guilty of a crime against a lowly foreigner.
stirfry at 11:00 AM JST - 2nd August

how can they already know how long the trial will take ?
noborito at 12:08 PM JST - 2nd August

stirfry, you are joking right? As Japanese say "This is Japan."
scoobydoo at 01:05 PM JST - 2nd August

It seems like Jury Trails are a token gesture. Whats the point of having the Judges continue to decide guilt? Its no different to how it is already.

with the controversial lifetime secrecy obligation imposed on lay jurors.

Ummm isn't the point of the Jury system in western countries to make a fair and open system that is less likely to be abused? This system is just plain stupid and back to front. There is just no point in implementing the Jury system this way so maybe they hoping it will fail so they can go back to doing they way they like all behind closed doors.
notimpressed at 01:18 PM JST - 2nd August

Another example of Japan taking a foreign concept and getting it totally wrong and missing the point all together. A lay jury is supposed to help achieve a balanced and fair mode of justice, but if it is already decided by the same judges as before, then what has changed other than the sentence. Token gesture indeed. They must be only doing this to shut up the U.N and other critics,while still adhering to the old way.
Mark_McCracken at 10:53 PM JST - 2nd August

Japan's 1st jury trial to start Monday in Tokyo

Jury trials occurred occasionally in Japan between 1923 and 1943.
Ah_so at 01:20 AM JST - 3rd August

The 6 lay juries will simply agree with what the professional judges say. It will only be of any relevance if the 3 judges are split on a verdict.
Crokk at 03:54 AM JST - 3rd August

Jury trail is.. fail
sfjp330 at 05:15 AM JST - 4th August

This is a big step forward for Japan's judicial system. In the U.S., this is a regular court proceedings, and there is 13 jury selected members. Actually, the procecutor and the defense attorney makes jury selections based on background, knowledge, predjudical, age, sex, knowledge or bias the case. It's more of a even playing field in procecutor and defense, which can be considered a fair trial by convincing a jury member. In Japan, the verdict by the jury will eventually have heavier consequences to the outcome of the trial.