Lay judge, or saiban-in , 1 courts try serious cases in Japan. 2 Sitting together,
professional judges and lay judges decide guilt and sentence. Resembling
Anglo-American jurors, and unlike lay judges elsewhere, saiban-in are
selected at random and sit in only one case. Dissimilar to mixed tribunals
in some countries, where they cannot, or do not in practice, Japanese lay
judges question witnesses directly, giving them a more active role in fact
fi nding than jurors.