Juries in Japan
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The jury law was first introduced to Japan in 1923 by the leadership of the Prime Minister Hara Takashi. The jury system was not used very often at that time. The jury law has been suspended since 1943.
[edit] New law
On May 28, 2004, Diet of Japan enacted the law which requires selected citizens to take part in criminal court trials of certain severe crimes and make decisions together with professional judges both on guilt and on the sentence. These citizens are called “Saiban-in” (裁判員). Saiban-in are randomly selected out of the electoral register. In most of the cases the judicial panel is composed of six Saiban-in and three professional judges. In cases where there is no substantial dispute over guilt, the panel will be comprised of four Saiban-in and one professional judge. Unlike previous law, the defendants are not allowed to waive trial by Saiban-in. Saiban-in system is going to come into practice by May 2009.
[edit] External links
For an English translation of the law see Anderson & Dear, http://www.hawaii.edu/aplpj/pdfs/v6.01_Anderson.pdf#search=%22saiban-in%20translation%22
