A Justice Ministry advisory panel contemplating wide-reaching changes to the country's judicial system agreed Tuesday that the authority citizens have in court procedures for criminal cases should equal that of judges.

The Judicial Reform Council, which has already decided that the nation should introduce a framework of some kind that would allow citizens to participate in criminal court cases, hammered out details for the proposal during a meeting the same day.

Under the proposed public participation system, people chosen randomly from the public would attend court during criminal cases.

Unlike the U.S. jury system, however, the citizens would deliberate the case with the judges rather than by themselves.

According to panel members, the council agreed that members of the public taking part in the case would be given the same authority as the judges.

Under the envisioned system, the citizens and judges would make decisions together on both the verdict and the punishment.

As for the number of citizens that should take part in trial proceedings, the panel said the appropriate number would be between three and 12, and that the number should at least equal the number of judges assigned to the case.

But panel chairman Koji Sato told reporters that the council's final report would not recommend a specific number of citizens who would take part in trials.

Panel members also basically agreed that no decision against a defendant may be made if either the citizens or the judges formed the majority opinion by themselves. In such a case, the verdict would be invalidated.

Since the number of judges cannot exceed the number of citizens hearing a trial, this appears to be an attempt to ensure that punishments are not handed down without the involvement of trained judges.