With notices having already gone out to the randomly selected citizens who may have to serve as lay judges (saibanin) in serious criminal trials starting later this year, authorities are concerned that yakuza gangsters may end up being chosen. Oh well, at least they made sure to exclude law professors.

This prohibition is interesting given one aspect of the media debate about the new system, which goes something like this: Citizens: "How can average people like us possibly participate in criminal trials, help to find criminals guilty and decide their punishment when we know nothing about law?" Government: "Not to worry! Professional judges will be there to explain the law, so you don't need to know anything about it!"

In fact, the system is designed so that having no legal knowledge is effectively a requirement, since a variety of people are prohibited from serving as lay judges. Roughly categorized, these include: (a) politicians; (b) certain government employees; and (c) a variety of legal professionals. This means not only that everyone who participated in creating the system of lay judges will never have to be one, but that people with legal knowledge are intentionally excluded from the pool of potential candidates (also prohibited from serving are people with criminal records, meaning the ineligible will consist mainly of lawyers, politicians and criminals — distinguished company indeed!).