An advisory panel to the Cabinet launched discussions Tuesday aimed at giving Japan's judicial system its first overhaul of the postwar era.
The 13-member advisory panel, consisting of academics, legal professionals, businesspeople and labor unionists, is scheduled to meet over the next two years to debate several issues, including the reintroduction of the jury system and an increase in the number of lawyers, prosecutors and judges.
Marking the panel's first meeting, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said the judicial system needs to be more accessible to the public.
"Facing the 21st century, we have realized the need to make clear the roles of the judicial system from the standpoint of citizens," Obuchi told the panel.
The panel is expected to improve the system for educating legal professionals and to consider allowing practicing lawyers to become judges.
Law students currently work as trainees for two years once they have passed the bar examination and are then appointed as assistant judges. They continue to be promoted or change posts until they retire.
The panel may also discuss the possibility of reviving the jury system.
Japan adopted a jury system in 1928, but it was viewed negatively by legal experts at the time.
A total of 484 cases were handled by jurors before the system was mothballed in 1943.