Prosecutors nationwide have indicted 134 people so far to be tried under the new lay judge system, with the first two trials scheduled for the first half of August in Tokyo and Saitama, according to a Kyodo News tally.

The most common charge is robbery resulting in injury at 34, followed by murder at 32, drug violations at 17, arson at 10 and injury resulting in death at nine.

As of Friday, 42 district courts and their branches were scheduled to hold lay judge trials.