Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Law and Order: JCJU (Japanese Courteous Justice Unit)
Since today was a very quiet day I have plenty of time to talk about yesterday's class trip to the Osaka High Court (大阪高等裁判所).
We met outside the Yodoyabashi station at 12:30 PM and it was a short walk to the courthouse. As you can see above, the building looks rather non-descript, much more industrial and less noble than the major courthouses in New York. Where are the giant columns and steep staircases? I don't see one statue of Moses anywhere! Oh right...wrong culture.
All kidding aside when I was amazed at how easily we were able to enter the building and walk around freely. Security was virtually non-existent; I was neither searched nor scanned with a metal detector. Indeed, I didn't even have to show my I.D. or even sign my name on a sheet of paper! Anyone and everyone is allowed completely free access to all the proceedings.
The individual courtrooms were also surprising in their similarity to U.S. courtrooms. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures but you can probably imagine it pretty well: each side gets one table, there's a center podium for witnesses to speak at facing the bench where the judge(s) sit. Major differences include the lack of juries, separation between the defendant and his attorney (I never even saw them speak during the trials), the number of judges present (I saw as many as three) and the overall atmosphere inside the room. In general, I'd say everyone acted rather normal and I sensed very little in the way of confrontation. The judges in particular looked a lot less serious than I imagined a Japanese judge to look. Most of them looked quite young too.
As I said, we were allowed to visit any courtroom we chose so we tried to see a variety of cases. I have no idea how many were going on but given the size of the building I suppose it could have been dozens. Our first case was a rape case so the defendant was led into the courtroom bound with a rope around his arms. A witness was brought in and he testified about his history with the offender who apparently raped his wife and his girlfriend. Even still, he seemed totally calm about it and I don't think I saw him look at the defendant even once. I couldn't understand most of what he said (all these details I'm explaining were later given to me by Japanese students in the class) but his language sounded polite and ordinary.
The next case we walked in on was a forgery. This defendant didn't need to be tied up, apparently. After the prosecutor read a very long list of the charges (it seems this young man made a fake driver's license and then used it to defraud various businesses) the defendant's mother was called to the stand. She sounded a little emotional as she testified on behalf of her son.
The last case had something to do with drugs. I'm unclear about the details but the defendant appeared to be a woman although she wasn't guarded or restrained in any way. He father came in and testified about her relationship with some guy who apparently dabbled in stimulants. Then she came to the stand and spoke at length about her boyfriend/ex-husband. Both attorneys and the judge took turns asking her questions.
From the courthouse we walked over to Umeda and into the Hanshin Department store so our teacher (the cool one I've mentioned several times before) could show us an omelette-making machine. It was quite clever, actually: the machine rolled back and forth over four long grooves into which it automatically poured egg on one pass and then scraped the egg out coming back. The scraping action rolled the egg into a little curled omelette which humans would then wrap and sell (3 for about 410 Yen). Photography was not allowed else I would have recorded the entire process, it only took about thirty seconds.
After gawking in the department store for a while we went out to a local bar for Happy Hour. Most of the students passed on this segment (including all of the Japanese ones) which is a real mystery to me. Who doesn't want to drink with their professors? I had several beers and an order of surprisingly tasty nachos before I realized that Scott was probably on his way home from work so I called him and invited him to join us. He did turn up and the six of us (including my professor) actually went up to the really nice bar where that fancy party was last month. We chilled up there for a while before Scott and I separated from the others who were heading back to Hirakata. So all around it was a fascinating and entertaining day!
Tomorrow should be fun as it's Labour Thanksgiving Day here in Japan. While I always love a day off, getting a Wednesday off and missing four classes is positively ideal. To then spend my day off with Mako is a real treat!
We met outside the Yodoyabashi station at 12:30 PM and it was a short walk to the courthouse. As you can see above, the building looks rather non-descript, much more industrial and less noble than the major courthouses in New York. Where are the giant columns and steep staircases? I don't see one statue of Moses anywhere! Oh right...wrong culture.
All kidding aside when I was amazed at how easily we were able to enter the building and walk around freely. Security was virtually non-existent; I was neither searched nor scanned with a metal detector. Indeed, I didn't even have to show my I.D. or even sign my name on a sheet of paper! Anyone and everyone is allowed completely free access to all the proceedings.
The individual courtrooms were also surprising in their similarity to U.S. courtrooms. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures but you can probably imagine it pretty well: each side gets one table, there's a center podium for witnesses to speak at facing the bench where the judge(s) sit. Major differences include the lack of juries, separation between the defendant and his attorney (I never even saw them speak during the trials), the number of judges present (I saw as many as three) and the overall atmosphere inside the room. In general, I'd say everyone acted rather normal and I sensed very little in the way of confrontation. The judges in particular looked a lot less serious than I imagined a Japanese judge to look. Most of them looked quite young too.
As I said, we were allowed to visit any courtroom we chose so we tried to see a variety of cases. I have no idea how many were going on but given the size of the building I suppose it could have been dozens. Our first case was a rape case so the defendant was led into the courtroom bound with a rope around his arms. A witness was brought in and he testified about his history with the offender who apparently raped his wife and his girlfriend. Even still, he seemed totally calm about it and I don't think I saw him look at the defendant even once. I couldn't understand most of what he said (all these details I'm explaining were later given to me by Japanese students in the class) but his language sounded polite and ordinary.
The next case we walked in on was a forgery. This defendant didn't need to be tied up, apparently. After the prosecutor read a very long list of the charges (it seems this young man made a fake driver's license and then used it to defraud various businesses) the defendant's mother was called to the stand. She sounded a little emotional as she testified on behalf of her son.
The last case had something to do with drugs. I'm unclear about the details but the defendant appeared to be a woman although she wasn't guarded or restrained in any way. He father came in and testified about her relationship with some guy who apparently dabbled in stimulants. Then she came to the stand and spoke at length about her boyfriend/ex-husband. Both attorneys and the judge took turns asking her questions.
From the courthouse we walked over to Umeda and into the Hanshin Department store so our teacher (the cool one I've mentioned several times before) could show us an omelette-making machine. It was quite clever, actually: the machine rolled back and forth over four long grooves into which it automatically poured egg on one pass and then scraped the egg out coming back. The scraping action rolled the egg into a little curled omelette which humans would then wrap and sell (3 for about 410 Yen). Photography was not allowed else I would have recorded the entire process, it only took about thirty seconds.
After gawking in the department store for a while we went out to a local bar for Happy Hour. Most of the students passed on this segment (including all of the Japanese ones) which is a real mystery to me. Who doesn't want to drink with their professors? I had several beers and an order of surprisingly tasty nachos before I realized that Scott was probably on his way home from work so I called him and invited him to join us. He did turn up and the six of us (including my professor) actually went up to the really nice bar where that fancy party was last month. We chilled up there for a while before Scott and I separated from the others who were heading back to Hirakata. So all around it was a fascinating and entertaining day!
Tomorrow should be fun as it's Labour Thanksgiving Day here in Japan. While I always love a day off, getting a Wednesday off and missing four classes is positively ideal. To then spend my day off with Mako is a real treat!
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Yes I noticed that Japan was more trusting also . I loved the vending machines on the street. do they still have them?
If so would you post some photos?
If so would you post some photos?
I've taken a few shots of the vending machines, as seen here and here. Since you asked though, I promise to take some more pictures for you!
コメントがあります？ Type something, please. It's less work for me.
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