Speak up

Imagine you grew up in a place where everyone valued social harmony, not individual expression. Silence is much better than speaking. Asking a question of someone in authority is nearly unthinkable.

Then, one sunny day, along come reformers who tell you it's time to modernize and democratize. They put you in a courtroom to serve on a special kind of jury that questions the defendant and deliberates with the judge over the sentence to hand down. Suddenly you have to speak up, express your opinion (were you supposed to have one?) and perhaps argue with the judge.

How would you feel? Terrified, maybe?

According to the polls, 80% of Japanese are "dreading" (quote) this odd variation on the jury system, slated to take effect in 2009.

[Note: Unfortunately, the New York Times online is now only providing abstracts of archives, even for online subscribers. Hopefully this link will let you read the abstract.]

Maybe this will be a good thing, and everyone will quickly overcome their very natural fear. But it doesn't seem right to force a society to change cultural behaviors that have served them well for millennia, right into the age of technology and globalization. At the very least, it seems odd to jump into a jury system even more oriented toward public individual expression than, say, the American system.