Comments on: I want my MTV. . .

By: Ampontan

Ampontan — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 02:14:36 +0000

I think part of the problem is that the Japanese government springs some reforms on people with little or no warning and very little effort to explain the system or build a consensus. Stuff like this just comes out of nowhere, and people are bound to be disconcerted by radical change.

Another one came out with the recent recommendations on amending the Constitution. Everyone is talking about Article 9, but the panel also recommended rearranging the prefectural system of government into larger jurisdictions. This is as if the Americans were discussing a major constitutional issue, and someone said, by the way, there’s only going to be 20 states from now on.

By: papa

papa — Mon, 18 Apr 2005 16:11:18 +0000

I think Americans take jury duty too lightly, but there is a difference in a jaded attitude there where the jury system has been working for 200 years and public resistance here in Japan where the idea is new and public apathy could leave it stillborn.

Where is the vast right-wing LDP-bureaucracy-Imperial Household-media conspiracy everyone talks about? Seems like they could do everyone a good turn by brainwashing the Japanese public into supporting the jury system.

By: toe-kee-yo

toe-kee-yo — Mon, 18 Apr 2005 09:46:33 +0000

ive known the 70% statistic for months now, i dont know why it suddenly became news. (a japanologist friend emailed me this yesterday).

You might want to consider that the question didn’t ask “do you want a jury system” it asked “do you wanna be on a jury”. Though I would hazard to guess that Japanese people are apathetic about the jury system anyway, I can see a large difference between endorsing a jury system and personalyl wanting to serve on one. I wonder if there are surveys in America asking if “you wanna be on a jury” and how many people say no.

By: papa

papa — Mon, 18 Apr 2005 07:35:39 +0000

This resistance to the jury system is very discouraging. A chance for ordinary citizens to participate and improve a Japanese public institution (has Hell frozen over?) and people are pissing on it. If these idiots think judging a case is too hard for their pea-brains they have no right to complain the next time a rape-murderer gets off with a slap on the wrist.

I would say something clever like “they’ll get the kind of justice system they deserve”, except that it’s the same justice system me and my children will have to live with.