Given the new
Ace Attorney game, I thought
this story by the BBC provided some interesting detail on what it means to be accused of a crime in Japan.
The Economist also
wrote about this topic a while back:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by The Economist
Japan is unique among democratic countries in that confessions are obtained from 95% of all people arrested, and that its courts convict 99.9% of all the suspects brought before them. Prosecutors are ashamed of being involved in an acquittal and fear that losing a case will destroy their careers. Judges get promotion for the speed with which they process their case-loads. And juries do not exist, though there is talk of introducing a watered-down system called saiban-in for open-and-shut cases. Apparently, members of the public are not to be trusted with cases that might involve special knowledge. Those will still be heard and ruled on—as are all cases in Japan today—by judges alone.
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Kind of puts Phoenix Wright's job in perspective, doesn't it?