Televiews - As nation readies for lay-judge system, time for courtroom primer

November 7, 2008 by J!-ENT

In a recent column of “Televiews” for the Daily Yomiuri, Wm. Penn wrote:

Judge II (Saturdays, 9 p.m., NHK), which began Oct. 25 and runs through Nov. 22, is an interesting fusion of courtroom drama, scenic travelogue and instructional material for a populace soon to be thrust into a strange new world. From May 2009, Japanese citizens will be called upon to serve as lay judges.

News broadcasts have been reporting on the imminent arrival of the lay judge system for years now and a few specials and dramas have broached the subject. Yet one wonders how well the public understands the functions of the new system and how it will impact the lives of those chosen.

Judge II doesn’t answer that question, but it does offer some basic instruction in judicial terminology. As the courtroom drama unfolds from opening statements to cross-examination, the appropriate legal terms for all these events pop up on our TV screens.

What prospective judges are probably most interested in is how much time they will be required to spend away from work or family, what, if any, compensation they will receive and what sort of cases they will have to hear. But in a nation where viewers have never had quite as much passion for courtroom dramas as the inhabitants of Perry Mason land, a beginner’s course in legalese can’t hurt either.

Japanese TV has always shown a preference for police detective-interrogation room dramas such as Hagure Keiji Junjoha or Aibo, (Wednesdays, 9 p.m., TV Asahi) or travelogue murder mysteries featuring amateur sleuths with career specialties–geisha, freelance writer, mortician, taxi driver or feng shui gardener. There is hardly a profession that has not been represented. The emphasis is on capture and confession. The actual judicial process has received far less attention.

Oh, there have been some legal series, such as Shichinin no Onna Bengoshi (seven women lawyers), but those series, too, spend much of their time outside the courtroom tracking down evidence and doing the footwork necessary to defend their clients.