Sex Crimes in the Lay Judge System and the Prosecution Review Commission in Japan

Much attention has been paid to the impact of the Saiban-In (Lay Judge) system, which will be 10 years old in May 2019. One of the strongest points of interest is how the sentencing pattern has been changing as lay judges decide not only on fact-finding but also on sentencing with professional judges. In this seminar, Professor Hirayama analyzed how sentencing patterns have changed (or not) for crimes tried by lay judges, and in doing so, The seminar focused on sex crime cases where the sentencing has been increasing since the introduction of the Lay Judge System.

The seminar discussed why there has been gap between sentencing for sex crime cases tried by bench trials and lay judge trials. On the other hand, the indictment rate for sex crime has been decreasing. Professor Hirayama will also discuss how this tendency can be analyzed in the context of the lay judge system.

The seminar will also focus on the reformed Prosecution Review Commissions (PRC), which is also an important form of lay participation in criminal justice system in Japan, in the context of sex crime cases. In some sex crime cases, professional prosecutors are quite reluctant to indict especially when they think it is hard to prove. The seminar will explain what can be expected of the roles of PRCs in order to improve many problems in criminal justice policy for sex crime cases.

Presenters: Professor Mari Hirayama

Mari Hirayama is a Professor in Criminal Procedure and Criminology at Hakuoh University, Japan. She has a long-term involvement in the law and civil society responses to confessions and miscarriages of justice in Japan.