Introduction of the Saiban-in System and Reformation of Criminal Procedure in Japan

Abstract

In 2004, Japan enacted a statute (the Saiban-in Act) to introduce a system of lay participation in criminal trials. In the new system, six people selected randomly from among the citizens in each case would serve as Saiban-in (lay assessor) and, in collaboration with three professional judges, engage themselves in deciding both guilt and sentence in the trials involving capital and other serious offenses. After five years of preparation, the Saiban-in Act came into force on May 21, 2009. In the four years and eight months since the first Sainban-in trial was held in August that year, 6,530 defendants were tried by the mixed panel courts, in which 36,837 citizens served as Saiban-in and 12,597 as supplementary Saiban-in. The introduction of this new system, which almost necessarily accompanied several important revisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP), has already led to not only dramatic changes in the management and manner of criminal trials but also significant developments in judicial precedents. It also seems to have been changing the attitudes of criminal justice professionals and even the public views on criminal law and justice in the long run. In the following parts, I will give a brief survey on the backgrounds of the introduction of the Saiban-in system and the ongoing reform which it has brought about in the Japanese criminal procedure