A judge asks a Vietnamese defendant accused of breaking the Immigration Control Law whether the written indictment is correct. A court interpreter conveys the question to him in Vietnamese, using a microphone.
"Everything is correct," he responds at the first hearing of his trial at the Sapporo District Court in November, using an earpiece.
That's a scene playing out more and more across Japan as court cases involving foreign defendants grow hand in hand with Japan's expanding foreign population.