ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the process by which Japan became familiar with the idea of trial by jury and analyzes the first efforts to implement the jury system in the Meiji period. It first provides a brief overview of the historical background, focusing on the developments in the Japanese legal system in the Meiji period. It then discusses the first documents mentioning the institution of jury service that reached Japan in the 19th century. Subsequent sections describe the features of the “bureaucratic” and the “judge-only” special jury systems used in Japan in the 1870s, outline the points raised in the debate concerning the possibility of adding the provisions regarding jury service to the text of the Meiji Constitution, and look at the stipulations about trial by jury included in the 1879 draft of Japan’s Code of Criminal Instruction. Japan’s first attempts to introduce the jury system in the Meiji period are then analyzed, and a conclusion summarizes the chapter’s findings.
