The Development of Jury Service in Japan : A square block in a round hole?

This book presents a comprehensive account of past and present efforts to introduce the jury system in Japan. Focused on related case studies, the book also discusses the instances when the idea of introducing trial by jury was rejected at different times in Japan’s history. The work further poses the question of whether the saiban’in system is likely to remain an effectively functioning institution, or if it will ultimately repeat the fate of previous unsuccessful experiments. The book offers important insights on a question that is highly relevant for understanding contemporary Japan and its recent and distant past.

This book presents a comprehensive account of past and present efforts to introduce the jury system in Japan. Four legal reforms are documented and assessed: the implementation of the bureaucratic and all-judge special jury systems in the 1870s, the introduction of the all-layperson jury in the late 1920s, the transplantation of the Anglo-American-style jury system to Okinawa under the U.S. Occupation, and the implementation of the mixed-court lay judge (saiban’in) system in 2009. While being primarily interested in the related case studies, the book also discusses the instances when the idea of introducing trial by jury was rejected at different times in Japan’s history. Why does legal reform happen? What are the determinants of success and failure of a reform effort? What are the prospects of the saiban’in system to function effectively in Japan? This book offers important insights on the questions that lie at the core of the law and society debate and are highly relevant for understanding contemporary Japan and its recent and distant past.