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Friday December 21 12:09 PM ET
Japan Judges Don't Need Law Degrees
By KENJI HALL, Associated Press Writer
TOKYO (AP) - Kazuko Yokoo has an excellent
resume: She was Japan's ambassador to Ireland,
she ran the government's Social Insurance
Agency and was a senior bureaucrat in the
Labor Ministry.
One thing she doesn't have, however, is legal
training. But, no matter - she will soon
be on Japan's Supreme Court.
The appointment of Yokoo this week to the
15-member court highlights one of the crowning
oddities of Japan's post-World War II judicial
system - about a third of the justices on
its highest bench aren't even legal experts.
Under postwar Japanese law, the Cabinet uses
quotas to fill the Supreme Court bench. Ten
of the justices are picked for their legal
expertise, mostly High Court judges and seasoned
attorneys with decades of experience. The
emperor's choice for chief justice usually
comes from these ranks.
Yokoo, only the second woman to serve on
the Supreme Court, is one of the remaining
five, who are a public prosecutor, a university
professor, a diplomat and two government
bureaucrats.
``There's no basic training. And the caseload
is heavy - impossibly so - even for those
justices who have been trained as judges,''
said Itsuo Sonobe, a former member of the
court's General Secretariat.
Japan's media have welcomed the appointment
of Yokoo as an opportunity to add diversity
to the court. The only other woman, Hisako
Takahashi, was also a former Labor Ministry
official and held the post from 1994-1997.
But experts say Yokoo - like Takahashi -
will probably have a minimal impact before
she is forced to retire at 70. Yokoo, 60,
is replacing Takao Ode, 69, a former senior
Cabinet official.
``Yokoo is, above all, a showcase item for
the Cabinet. She probably won't be able to
leave a legacy,'' said Jiro Nomura, a professor
at Chiba Industrial University and a former
court journalist.
Experts say the court is hamstrung by its
huge workload, the lack of experience of
its nonlegal members and the general reluctance
of judges in Japan to make controversial
or politically sensitive rulings.
A major limiting factor on the Supreme Court
are Japan's elite central bureaucrats, most
of whom are graduates from the country's
best universities. They draft laws and set
policy.
Their clout encourages the court's traditional
servility, a mindset that permeates everything
from judge appointments to rulings, which
primarily involve punishing offenders and
arbitrating disputes.
There's plenty of that to do.
Last year, Japan's courts heard more than
5.5 million cases, with the Supreme Court
ruling on some 1,500-2,000. By contrast,
the U.S. Supreme Court rules on about 80
cases each term, which runs from October
through June or early July.
Kept on a short leash by the bureaucrats,
Japan's judiciary rarely flexes its muscle,
and critics have long questioned the fairness
of trials. There is, for example, a 99 percent
conviction rate in criminal trials.
The highest court seldom challenges the bureaucracy,
either.
Justices tend to defend long-standing legal
precedents rather than stir public debate
by reinterpreting laws or overturning past
rulings. Only five times in its 54-year history
has the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional
a law passed by Parliament - most recently
nearly 20 years ago.
First-time justices like Yokoo rely heavily
on the court's General Secretariat staff
of 30. All former judges, they do the grunt
work and draw up court opinions for the justices.
This, Nomura said, compromises the justices'
authority, and leaves them powerless to counter
the executive and legislative branches as
they were designed to do.
``It's a mistake to try to compare Japan's
Supreme Court to the United States,''' he
said. ``The U.S. court has a long tradition
of protecting freedom of speech and expression.
It's far more advanced.''
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On the Net:
Japan's Supreme Court, http://www.courts.go.jp/english/ehome.htm
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