The Supreme Court said Tuesday the lay judge system that debuted in May seems to be running smoothly, as a poll of 528 people taking part in some manner in the new process found 95.5 percent of them felt it was a "good experience."
The survey covered 79 people who actually served as lay judges, as well as 30 chosen as standbys and 419 others who had been candidates but not selected.
Quizzed on their actual lay judge stints, 51 of the 79 said it was a "very good experience" while 26 said it was a "good experience."
But more than half said they were reluctant to participate when they were selected as lay judges.
The outcome of the survey was part of the Supreme Court's report to a panel that met Tuesday on improving the lay judge system.
The survey was conducted on people involved in 14 trials held at 11 district courts that gave rulings before the end of September.
While 51 percent of the 79 lay judges said the trials they attended were easy to understand, the percentage of those who favored presentations by prosecutors was 19 points higher than that for defense counsels.
The respondents also showed satisfaction with their deliberations, with 68 of the 79 saying there was an atmosphere that allowed them to speak up, and 62 saying they could thoroughly debate the case.
In the 14 trials, 1,310 people were chosen as lay judge candidates and 689 were in the end not allowed to take part.
The new judicial system was introduced to allow ordinary people to take part in deciding sentences together with professional judges, with a view to giving the general public a greater stake in the judicial process.