On Wednesday at 8 p.m., TV Asahi launches the sixth season of its popular cop show "Aibo (Partners)" with a special two-hour drama entitled "Fukugan no Hotei (A Courtroom of Many Eyes)."
A police officer assigned to the Shinjuku South precinct is found shot dead. A black-market gun dealer named Tsukahara is picked up for questioning since he was once arrested for possession of firearms by the dead officer. Under interrogation he breaks and confesses to the killing.
The police detective partners Ukio (Yutaka Mizutani) and Kaoru (Yasufumi Terawaki) decide to attend Tsukahara's trial as spectators, since it is being showcased as a test example of the new lay-judge system, in which average citizens share the bench with professional judges. During the trial, Tsukahara recants his confession, claiming his innocence, and later one of the lay judges is found murdered.