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July 15, 2025
 

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LAY JUDGES

Students participate in a mock lay judge trial session with a lawyer serving as a lecturer at Tokyo Metropolitan Mitaka Secondary School in March.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Sep 2, 2024
15 years on, Japan's lay judge system faces low participation
Fifteen years after its launch, Japan's lay judge system continues to grapple with a high refusal rate among candidates.
People who have experienced becoming lay judges take part in a meeting to exchange views at the Tokyo District Court on March 6. Japan's lay judge system marks its 15th year on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 20, 2024
Number of lay judges falls as Japan marks system's 15th year
While there were more than 10,000 lay judges in the system's first few years, their numbers have fallen to around 6,000 in recent years.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Aug 2, 2019
Past participants in Japan's lay judge system reveal its challenges
"The accused was sitting right there, so close to me, and yet I felt like there was an unbridgeable distance between us."
EDITORIALS
Jan 24, 2019
Reviewing the lay judge trial system
Resolving issues surrounding lay judges hold the key to sustaining the system.
EDITORIALS
Nov 24, 2018
Reduce the burden on lay judges
Lay judge trials run too long, and they're getting longer.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / ANALYSIS
Dec 18, 2015
Japan hangs prisoners days after lawyers' call for death penalty review
The executions of two death row inmates on Friday was a blow to the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, which only last week reiterated a call for a moratorium on hangings and for a national debate on the matter.
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2014
Reflecting citizens' views on justice
Japan's Supreme Court decision to reduce the prison terms of a couple convicted of fatally abusing their daughter highlights the difficulty in balancing the need, on one hand, to have ordinary citizens' views reflected in criminal trials through their participation as lay judges and, on the other, to maintain consistency with judicial precedents.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jun 18, 2014
Still dreaming of a Japan with juries — and without U.S. bases
At 84, Chihiro Isa hopes to see two things in his lifetime: the jury system reinstated in Japan and U.S. forces gone from Okinawa.
EDITORIALS
May 5, 2014
Improving the lay judge system
As Japan's lay judge system turns 5 years old, the Justice Ministry's Legislative Council is considering excluding citizens from the duty of serving as lay judges when trials are expected to last more than a year.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 22, 2014
Waiting for the death-penalty debate that never comes
The media breathlessly cover murder trials and profile suspects who face the death penalty, but once a sentence is handed down, they fall back.
EDITORIALS
Mar 21, 2014
Lay judges' moral dilemma
How does Japan's justice minister respond to a petition from 20 citizens who, as lay judges, agonized over the possibility of having to hand down a death sentence? They call for an immediate halt to capital punishment.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 18, 2014
Hirata trial highlights evolving court system
In the same courtroom where many of his fellow Aum Shinrikyo cult members were tried years before, Makoto Hirata was convicted and sentenced earlier this month.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2013
Lay judges get a peek at prison life
When lay judges hand down a prison term, many focus on the merits of the case itself and not about the life behind bars that awaits the guilty.
EDITORIALS
Apr 30, 2013
Stressful hearings for lay judges
The case of the woman lay judge in her 60s who suffered a stress disorder after viewing a photo of a horrific crime scene underscores the weak psychological support for lay judges.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 22, 2007
Opening the courts to ordinary citizens
In less than two years, when a new criminal trial system is introduced, citizens will be obliged to serve as "saibanin," or lay judges. The general public in some 80 countries around the world already plays a role in their nations' judicial systems, such as British- and American-style juries and the...
U.S. urges clarity on Japan’s role in potential war over Taiwan, report says
A Ground Self-Defense Force member conducts a military drill with an anti-ship missiles unit, at the GSDF's base on Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture in April 2022.
Tourists in Japan have telemedicine options before calling 119
Foreign tourists at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo. More than 1 million international visitors have a medical issue in Japan every year.
Tropical Storm Nari moves northward, with possible landfall Tuesday
Tropical Storm Nari's forecast path as of Monday morning
Nissan clinches $4.5 billion bond deal after orders soar
Nissan Motor has raised $4.5 billion through a junk bond sale in U.S. dollars and euros, part of which carries a record-high coupon rate.
U.S. urges clarity on Japan’s role in potential war over Taiwan, report says
A Ground Self-Defense Force member conducts a military drill with an anti-ship missiles unit, at the GSDF's base on Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture in April 2022.
Tourists in Japan have telemedicine options before calling 119
Foreign tourists at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo. More than 1 million international visitors have a medical issue in Japan every year.
Is Japanese skin really ‘too smooth’ for Hideo Kojima’s games?
Hideo Kojima, the leading auteur in Japanese video games, has skirted controversy in the wake of the release of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
An emoji used to say it all. Now it might say too much.
Apple’s Craig Federighi shows off a set of emoji at a conference on June 13, 2016. While the small pictures have proved helpful in conveying nuance in our texts, younger people are using them less often.
‘Our ultimate goal is to save every single Japanese video game’
After nearly shuttering earlier this year, the Tokyo-based Game Preservation Society continues its work to save the early history of Japanese gaming.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan
By Megha Wadhwa

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