So funny thing happens today. At the end of the adult English class I taught today, as always, we sat around just talking about how our week's been going, and just interesting things that have happened. Well, it turns out that one of the students was a witness to something that's going to court. And so, she's going to the courthouse the day after tomorrow. Because my Japanese is really bad, I thought that she was going to the courthouse because she was a potential juror. So, when I started talking, I got the most blank looks. Thankfully, they understood eventually, but explained that in Japan, all trials are decided by judges, not juries. This completely took me by surprise. I dunno. I guess I always imagined that most developed countries with a court system had trials decided by "peers" as we do in the States. Well, I was wrong.
So then, I was asked if I was ever a juror. Which lead to a rather long discussion about jury duty. For those of you who can somewhat speak a second language... try explaining jury duty and all the feelings that come with it to someone (who has no idea what jury duty is) in a second language. It's hard!
So now I'm left wondering. Is America the only country that has jury duty?