At the same time, judges (and prosecutors) long ago cornered the fact market, so not much changes there. However, they will have to trod a little more lightly because now other people will be watching.

Through increased transparency, the system will eventually tilt back towards ‘innocent until proven guilty’. But it will take years.

While I agree with much of what you said, the sunny-side is that this will eventually have a trickle-down effect that induces the government to either revamp the NPA, or create a separate agency that investigates, and indicts, police officers who abuse their authority.

Such an outcome would arguably make all the short-term headaches worthwhile.

The common law systems keep it really simple: Lay people (jurors) decide the facts using their natural bullshit detectors, and judges decide the law using their experience and training.

Instead, what we’re going to have in Japan is a muddled mishmash where judges are influencing determinations of fact and lay people are influencing determinations of law: basically the worst of both worlds.

Is it more democratic? Yeah, OK, but justice is supposed to be fair and rational, not necessarily democratic.