Court interpreters participating in lay judge trials with foreign defendants are struggling with increases in the volumes of written evidence and rapid questioning of witnesses and defendants.

A defendant recently appealed a ruling at the Osaka District Court, saying the interpreter made translation mistakes, and moves have emerged to introduce an independent qualification for court interpreters to improve their abilities. At present, there is no such national qualification.

A woman in her 40s who has acted as an interpreter at trials in the metropolitan area for more than a dozen years observed for the first time proceedings at a lay judge trial over four consecutive days last November, and sighed as volumes of written evidence were read out and witnesses and the defendant were subjected to rapid-fire examination. Another veteran female interpreter was in charge.