(Today’s post about how my chance to observe the lay judge trial was stolen is in Japanese only. For an overview of my experience in English, please check my photo album here. Feel free to leave comments in English!)
8月4日（火曜日）、全国で初めての裁判員裁判を傍聴しようと、朝早くから東京地方裁判所へと出かけた。ニュースで聞いていたとおり、傍聴希望者が数百人来ていて、大きな行列ができていた。報道陣も大勢来ていて、目の前の人にも「なぜ傍聴に来た」と取材していた。
基本的に、裁判の傍聴はアポなしでもできるが、注目が集まるような事件となると希望者が傍聴席の約60席を上回るため、抽選で傍聴券が配布される。当日は並んでいる人に整理券をくばり、9時になると当せん番号をホワイトボードに掲載し、整理券の番号と一致した場合は当せんとなる。
残念ながら、私は外れた。裁判所の前で「惜しい」と悔やんでいたところ、不思議な光景を目撃した。それは次に述べるように「報道機関による裁判傍聴制度の乗っ取り」である。
まず、裁判所の前は報道陣のカメラマンなどであふれている。それに、報道陣から当選者らしき人に対し指示を出し、一つの場所に集めようとしている。
そして、道を渡って警察庁本部の前に行くと、また別の行列ができている。並んでいる人全員が整理券を手に、誰かに渡し、マニラ封筒を受け取る。
封筒を受け取る様子を見てやっとわかった。この人たちはおそらくアルバイトで応募して、当選した場合は報道関係者に傍聴券を譲渡する。当たりでも外れでもお金がもらえるので、抽選の後で封筒入りの現金を渡していたようである。
これを見て、本気で憤りを覚えた。動員されたアルバイトがいればいるほど、その分まじめに傍聴しに来た人が当たる確率が低くなり、その機会が報道機関の動員によって奪われたからだ。
改善策
裁判には報道関係者の立ち入りが禁止されているらしい（利害関係者などは別の傍聴席があるようだ）。その状況下で、なんらかの方法で取材しようとすることが、ジャーナリストとして当然の行動である。しかし、傍聴制度は国民のために設けられ、その権利を奪ってはいけない。
もちろん、バイトの人たちが悪いと思わない。
一番責任があるのは、こんな非効率なルールを作って裁判所の関係者たちである。この状況を改善するには、裁判所に対していくつかの提言を述べてみたい。
１．傍聴券を譲渡不可にする。お金目当てでの傍聴券の入手を防ぐために、傍聴券を第三者への譲渡を禁止すべきである。これによって、「報道機関の乗っ取り」による不公平をなくし、一般人が傍聴しやすくなる。
２．一定の傍聴席を報道機関に優先的に枠を作る。報道陣はどうしても取材したいし、国民の関心のある事件の場合、その社会的価値も高い。法廷のスペースに制限があるので、一般人の傍聴席を少し減らして10席ほど設ければいい。事情により報道機関の立ち入りを一時的に禁止する必要も考えられるので、その場合は枠を作らないで、一般人の傍聴も禁止すべき。
この慣行が何年も続いているので、提言したところで改善すると思わないが、裁判員制度が始まった今、国民の司法に対する関心は高まるに違いない。
以上の二つを実現すれば、傍聴制度は利用しやすくなり、本来の目的を果たすことを期待している。
Reminds me of McDonalds paying people to line up for a quaterpounder – though obviously this is a bit more serious.
Good suggestions, though. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I guess that after a while, this will cease to be an issue except for the high profile cases (i.e., those involving talent like Noriko Sakai’s husband, Kusanagi-kun, Manabu Oshio, et al.)
I recall Stephen Colbert doing a segment about this practice in the Washington lobbyist community — in fact, it even has a (short) Wikipedia article.
By the way, Adam, I am very disappointed that this happened to you. I would like to see you be the next Lawrence Repeta.
I agree with your suggestion 1, and I think they should make this change without telling anyone: just wait until the next popular trial and start stamping lottery winners’ hands with indelible ink on the spot. Then allow only the inked people in.
Also worth noting:
Reports of the first day mentioned that 2,400 people lined up to observe, but no one ever mentioned the fact that the media themselves were in fact paying probably a few hundred of them at least. They even interviewed some of them but apparently decided not to include anyone commenting that they were there for the money.
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/affairs/trial/090803/trl0908031152010-n3.htm
That’s some high quality outraged Japanese there Adamu.
その権利を奪ってはいけない。You have the “irate voice of the people” down.
Yep, I knew he wasn’t kidding when he wrote 本気で憤りを覚えた
Four words of advice, Adamu:
Go back tomorrow, armed.
Wouldn’t it be funny if like 200 gaijin showed up?
“Go back tomorrow, armed.”
So if I understand the rules correctly… can you beat someone down and take their envelope?
Sorry, seiriken. I’ll take the envelopes.
I saw two or three other white guys in line with me. Didn’t see any of them lining up to collect cash though.
Yes I could have swiped the women’s tickets in the above picture, but it didn’t occur to me. And anyway, the media were all over the place. I don’t want to get in the news as a wild courtroom observing maniac.
Another option could be to hide the tickets inside chocolate bars and ship them to random stores throughout the country.
Yes you can get the envelopes too but that would be a straight up robbery.
“Yes you can get the envelopes too but that would be a straight up robbery.”
Guess I’ll stick to knocking over drunk foreigners in Roppongi.
Why not just hold up a sign saying you’ll offer double what the news outlets are paying? That way you get your ticket *and* you get to embarrass them.
Well I am not sure what they are making for the service. I am guessing it’s somewhere around 5000-10000 yen, and I don’t want to see the trial THAT much
More people would get in touch with info on trial through media,far,far many more than those of whom lined up in the court.No?
But do they really need to get info on the trial from Tokudane?
That’s exactly the kind program the Joe Japanese watches,who are also skeptical about jury system and likely be the one to picked up for the task.
Fair enough. Are Sponichi and that type trying to get in, I wonder?
I agree Aceface, which is why I suggested letting reporters in with special passes (I’d open those to a lottery as well, open to freelance journalists, citizen media and bloggers in addition to TV and newspapers). At the same time, letting the public witness trials is a good way to get them more familiar with and interested in the law, so that’s why it makes me mad that reporters are forced to try and undermine that system to get their stories.
On the bright side, it does give laid off temp-workers something to do…
They should do this instead –
http://madbam.heteml.jp/tsp/uploads/img459e0acc46adb.jpg
I encountered the “line stander” thing Joe mentioned when I was working in DC. I used to see all these bike messenger-looking guys lining up outside rooms on the hill for trade-related hearings. I wondered what they were doing until one day I ran into a colleague inside a hearing; he asked me if I hired a “line stander” so I didn’t have to spend the extra 30-60 minutes waiting to get into the hearing myself. I agree with you that this is a BS practice, but even more so in the case you described. Probably the only reason it doesn’t happen with the media at hearings on the Hill is becuase they are allowed to attend through a seperate system from the public, which is similar to what you seem to be getting at.
On a slightly related note, (and you might also remeber this from your DC days), some labor unions frequently hire homeless people to march back and forth in front of buildings banging on drums or metal objects and chanting “hey, hey, ho, ho company x has got to go” or some silly variant thereof. The target buildings usually house construction companies with which the union has a beef. I suppose the idea is to shame the companies into submission. They even have a giant (12 feet tall, or so) inflatable rat with a disturbingly nippled and hairless belly they they sometimes inflate in front of the building. I often chucked at the irony of a union complaining about labor rights and the mistreatment of workers and then hiring homeless people to march in their protest. I guess if you think about it, the homeless are the “linewalkers” of the union employees who don’t want to go out and march themselves.
M-bone, that was beautiful. Does it actually refer to anything or is it just random?
From time to time I use Google images to search for “funny pictures” or 面白い写真 when I have some time to kill. I stumbled onto that one and just had to share. Found it here –
http://madbam.heteml.jp/tsp/modules/wordpress/index.php?author=1
Another moonlighting opportunity:
http://www.japantoday.com/images/size/200x/2009/01/fanta.jpg
By the way:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20090810-OYT1T00541.htm?from=rss&ref=rssad
Now they have a band that gets handed out, instead of a slip of paper. This is to prevent long waits, and people taking multiple tickets, but it seems that it would also prevent the problem that Adamu ran into.
OK that is interesting, thanks for the link. I can only hope they made this decision after reading my urgent emergency proposal. Still, I have my doubts.
The article isn’t clear as to whether the wristbands need to be on all the way through the time when you enter the courtroom, or whether you can take them off after checking whether you’ve won the drawing. If it’s the latter, they could still hand out transferable tickets which would change nothing.
Also, I don’t know how they do things in Saitama, but at the Tokyo Regional Courthouse this supposed problem of waiting for “hours” after you receive the lottery ticket simply doesn’t exist. People were waiting outside before the tickets were handed out, and the court staff only started handing out the tickets about a half hour before the drawing. That meant that there was no reason to show up early. As long as you were there during the time the tickets were being handed out you were assured a chance. But it is true that once you receive the ticket you have to wait in a designated area until the drawing begins. That was pretty annoying and could be dangerous if a stampede erupted for some reason.
It’s entirely possible that the Saitama court was running a very ungainly lottery system that kept people waiting for no good reason, and this wristband idea only fixes the waiting time problem but doesn’t actually prevent the media from gaming the system.
“or whether you can take them off after checking whether you’ve won the drawing.”
I think the article says that if you try to take them off, it leaves ink marks. From the picture, they look similar to “all-day ride passes” that they use in amusement parks. Those things are a bitch to get off and even if you can manage to they look kinda loose.
I think you are right about the type of bracelet. I hate those things! Here’s hoping they really are intended to be worn all day long. When I get a chance it would be interesting to see whether any of the 傍聴 bloggers had a comment on this.
Still, I don’t see anything on there about ink. Apparently the wristband is made of “water-resistant paper” and will destroy your number if you try and force it off.
バンドは特殊な耐水性の紙製で、無理に外そうとすると、印字されている６けたの整理番号の部分が破れて無効になる仕組み。