Over the next few days, some 295,000 Japanese can expect to find a large envelope from the Supreme Court in their mailboxes with the following notice: "This is to inform you that, as a result of a lottery, you are listed as a prospective lay judge of the court (between May 21 and Dec. 31, 2009)."
The top court will send out this notice Friday on behalf of local district courts ahead of the May 21 launch of the new criminal court system.
Under the lay judge system, six randomly chosen citizens will join three professional judges in criminal trials and, if they find the accused guilty, hand down a sentence.