This article is more than 11 years old

This article is more than 11 years old

Thousands of Japanese citizens queued outside a Tokyo courtroom today to witness the most radical change to their country's criminal justice system since the second world war with the introduction of trial by jury.

Inside, six people chosen at random from millions of voters became the first Japanese people for three generations to decide whether a fellow citizen walks free or pays for his crimes.

The jurors – five women and a man – were chosen from a pool of 47 people this morning to take their seats in court later in the day. Their task: to decide an appropriate punishment for Katsuyoshi Fujii, a 72-year-old man accused of stabbing a neighbour to death earlier this year.

They and three professional judges at Tokyo district court will sentence Fujii, who has admitted killing 66-year-old Haruko Bun. The lay judges must arrive at a majority decision and have the assent of at least one professional judge for the sentence to stand.

Until today the only exposure Japanese below a certain age have had to genuine courtroom drama has been textbook accounts of historical trials or cross-examinations by Raymond Burr in TV repeats of Perry Mason.

Modern Japanese trials, by contrast, managed to turn potentially dramatic murder trials into something approaching the public reading of a weighty legal text.

Japan introduced trial by jury in 1928 but abolished it in 1943, when its leaders tightened their grip on power at home as the tide of war began to turn against them.

While justice officials today hailed a new era of openness, the men and women expected to dispense justice have mixed feelings about their new role.

Some look forward to the prospect of handing out justice to their fellow citizens, while others live in dread of the day they might be called on to consider sending another human being to the gallows.

A recent survey found that one in four potential jurors were unwilling to serve, even though their absence could land them a 100,000 yen (£600) fine.

The landmark legal change came amid widespread criticism of the glacial pace of trials for serious crimes and the absence of lawyers during the questioning of suspects – a practice police have exploited to force confessions that are later used in court. Verdicts and sentences were decided by panels of judges, with 99% of criminal trials ending in a conviction.

Penal reformers hope the "citizen judges" will be more sympathetic to defendants who say they were forced to confess.

"With the change, trials will become more democratic," said the justice minister, Eisuke Sato. "We hope to achieve a justice system that is speedier, more accessible and reliable."

Protesters outside the Tokyo district court said the new emphasis on speed – a verdict in Fujii's case is expected on Thursday – would allow miscarriages of justice to continue.

"Lay judge trials only force unwilling people to take part in trials, and their conclusions will be the same as those made by professional judges [under the old system]," said Shunkichi Takayama, a lawyer.

Legal experts have conducted hundreds of mock trials in recent years to allay fears among potential jurors.

The public's fascination with western-style justice will intensify when lay judges are asked to rule on a case in which the death penalty is an option. Although capital punishment enjoys wide public support, progressive lawyers believe jurors will find the noose a punishment too far.

In recent years Japan has come under fire for its enthusiastic use of capital punishment, just as the practice is being abandoned in other countries. Last week it executed three men on death row, bringing the number of hangings to seven this year. It hanged 15 people last year, the highest number since 1975.