世論 What Japan Thinks

Last August, Central Research Services, Inc performed a survey regarding the introduction of lay judges to the Japanese judicial system by questioning 1,384 adults from an initial pool of 2,000 by means of face-to-face interviews. This is the third time they have carried out this survey, once in 2003 and once in 2004, so the main text will compare this time’s results with previous results. The results were presented mainly as a textual report rather than raw data, so that is the way I too will present this translation.

The system of lay judges was passed into law in 2004 and is due to be introduced in 2009. One thing I always regretted when I lived back in the UK was never being asked to serve on a jury, as being a very civic-minded sort of person, seeing first-hand and participating in the legal process would be quite an honour to me. A friend of mine once sat on a jury for someone charged with nicking car radios. After the first and only day at trial, my friend went back to his car and found, rather ironically, that his radio had also been pinched.

The support for this new law, however, has grown weaker, shrinking from about half the population being behind it two years ago to now just over a third. In addition, as can be seen from the pie chart on the right, just one in twenty has the confidence in their own abilities to perform as a law judge.

Note that Japan has not had a trial by jury system since 1943.

Regarding the awareness of the introduction of lay judges, 79% of the total sample size knew about it, 5 percentage points up from last year. Awareness in Tokyo, Osaka and other major cities was at 86%, up 9 points; in smaller towns and cities it was at 78%, up from 75%; and in the villages and countryside, 7^%, up from 71%. Three percent more men knew about it than last year, up from 82% to 85%, whereas women stood at 74%, up from 67%.

Broken down by ages, 68% in their twenties, 78% in their thirties, 85% in their forties, 84% in their fifties and 78% aged sixty or over were aware of the new legislation. By occupation, the most aware were office workers at 85%, whereas farmers, foresters and fishermen were least aware at 70%.

Now, regarding the necessity of this new system, merely 16% thought it was necessary and 18% thought it was somewhat necessary. This 34% is down from 40% in 2004 and 50% in 2003. On the other side, 18% thought it was somewhat unnecessary and 23% thought it was not necessary at all. Here, the 41% opposed similarly increased from 35% and 23% in the previous two surveys.

Looking at the large cities, 38% thought it was necessary to some degree versus 49% and 54% the previous two times. In smaller towns and cities, it stood at 34%, down from 38% and 49%; and in the countryside only 27% expressed a positive opinion, down from 35% and 46%. By sex, 39% of men but only 29% of women were in favour, down from 46% and 35% respectively in 2004, and 52% and 48% in 2003.

When asked why they supported the lay judge legislation, 63% of the supporters said that it would deepen citizens’ understanding and interest in trials; 40% said because judges were remote from the feelings of the man in the street; and 35% felt that the accused would be more understanding of a sentence that the man in the street had participated in. These were the top three reasons chosen. On the other hand, the top three reasons for those who thought lay judges were not necessary were first was that the average citizen’s knowledge of judicial matters was poor at 63%; 47% said that people would be easily influenced by unreliable information; and 33% reckoned it is burdensome for the man in the street to participate in trials.

Next, they asked who might like to participate in a trial as a lay judge. A mere 6% definitely wanted to take part and 16% thought it would be good to participate. These figures were respectively 5% and 20% in 2004 and 8% and 22% in 2003. Broken down by sex, 27% of men expressed one of these two positive opinions, whereas only 17% of women were keen. Looking at the opinions by age group, 32% of people in their thirties would participate, the highest score, whereas only 15% of those sixty and over would take part. By employment, the self-employed and those in management were most positive at 41%, whereas fulltime housewives were least keen at 15%.

Finally, people were asked if they themselves had the confidence to judge someone. Merely one percent said they did and 4% said they had some degree of confidence. Over three-quarters (76%) said they had no confidence at all, and 13% had little self-confidence in their abilities to perform. The noes were strongest in rural areas, where 95% expressed negative opinions to this question. Women were three percentage points more negative in regards to this question, and by age a similar 3% separated the highest and lowest ranks.

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