To start today off on a happy note, we'll turn to the world of criminal prosecution in Japan! For a while, Japan has been operating under a much different system than we do here in the US when it comes to criminal prosecutions. You need look no further than Phoenix Wright to see what I mean. There are no juries, just the prosecutor, defense, and a judge.

Well, things are changing. Japan is re-introducing a six-panel jury, along with three jurors, to hear serious cases of rape, murder, and the like. The reasoning behind it is that trials in Japan are, well, not to say a sham per se, but with something like a 99.5% conviction rate, The Independent puts it best -- it's a battle of paperwork more than anything.

I guess that's part of the appeal behind Phoenix Wright: You're making the impossible possible and saving people from almost certain doom. Sure, the cases are overly tricky, and it's a battle of wits as opposed to properly written arguments, but hey, it's fiction.

Now, the worry with these jury systems, as explained to me by a teacher back in Japan, is that on average, these juries dole out harsher punishments. Yep, the juries get to determine punishments too. And so, while the conviction rate might go down, more people will liekly get death sentences or life imprisonments for something that happened in the heat of the moment.

Japan obviously seems comfortable enough to launch this into the public from the test trials they had been doing in the past, so I guess they know what's best. I wonder how the reactions will be a year down the line. Hey, if nothing else, it gives us an opportunity to revisit the Ace Attorney series with an all-new courtroom mechanics.