A total of 5,842 people were summoned as citizen judges to 50 district courts from the start of the first lay judge trial last August up until the end of the year, but 622 of them, or just under 11 percent, failed to show up, a tally indicated Wednesday.
No one, however, is believed to have been fined for their failure to appear.
Under the citizen judge system law, those who fail to appear at court without a proper reason may face a fine of up to ¥100,000, but it is up to the three professional judges in each trial case whether to apply a fine.
All the district courts have apparently determined that it is not necessary to impose such fines as they can easily select other citizen judges from among the candidates.
But such a position could prompt discontent among those who appeared in trial cases out of a fear of being fined.