"10 Years of the Lay Judge System—Significance and Prospects of Citizen Participation"

2020/08/17

The true appeal of lay judge trials lies in the deliberation phase, where professional judges and ordinary citizens discuss guilt or innocence, as well as sentencing in the case of a guilty verdict. I experienced this appeal firsthand through numerous mock trials held at the Tokyo District Court just before the system's launch. To explore the operation of the new system, deliberations were also opened to stakeholders. In mock deliberation projects organized by civic groups, I also experienced deliberations between legal professionals and citizens in a transparent manner.

During these times, citizens were able to voice their opinions, and their diverse perspectives shone through in the deliberations, leading to discussions that even impressed the professionals. This gave me great expectations for the new system of citizen participation. At the same time, I had a sharp premonition of the drawbacks—that once the system began, deliberations would become a "black box" due to the duty of confidentiality.

The lay judge system started in 2009. Since then, ten years have passed, marked by activities in lay judge system committees and regular exchange meetings with former participants through the Lay Judge Participants Network. During this time, as I had foreseen, while citizen participation in deliberations utilized the diverse sensibilities of the public, the confidentiality regulations meant that even though citizens were brought into the deliberation room, the outside world was shielded from it. As a result, valuable citizen perspectives were not communicated at all, and because the limits of what could be discussed were ambiguous, the experience of being a lay judge did not spread to the surrounding community.

Therefore, to highlight the active role of lay judges in deliberations through the firsthand accounts of participants and stakeholders, and to discuss solutions to issues such as the importance of relaxing confidentiality regulations (which prevent deliberation content from being shared with society), a public symposium from a citizen's perspective was held last year at Aoyama Gakuin University, organized by the Lay Judge Participants Network and others.

In a panel discussion featuring former lay judges, former judges, defense attorneys, and legal journalists, the actual state of lay judge trials was discussed. With interactions between panelists and questions from the floor, the venue was filled with enthusiasm. Through these exchanges, it was confirmed that deliberations in lay judge trials functioned as team discussions, that the perspectives of lay judges were utilized, and that the experience provided participants with a deep sense of accomplishment.

This book was born by taking the lively discussions from that public symposium as its core, supplemented by discussions on issues by researchers and expert panelists, a joint proposal for relaxing confidentiality, and further studies on the lay judge system.

I hope that many people will read this book, that the experience of being a lay judge will spread as a positive one, becoming more familiar, and that the refusal rate will also improve.

"10 Years of the Lay Judge System—Significance and Prospects of Citizen Participation"

Shigeru Makino (Editor)

Nippon Hyoron Sha

176 pages, 1,700 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.