Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/101

 corpus, and though the framers of the Code endeavoured to provide safeguards which should guarantee an accused person against long detention pending conviction or acquittal, that form of abuse is certainly incidental to Japanese procedure. From this tribunal of first instance there is a right of appeal to a higher court where five judges form a panel, and finally to the Court of Cassation, where seven judges sit. There are also local courts where one judge tries police offences and misdemeanours which the procurator thinks unworthy of reference to a collegiate panel. It will be observed that the public procurator discharges highly important functions. He not only determines whether a case shall be sent forward for trial, but he also conducts it, on behalf of the Crown, through all its subsequent stages. Finally, to complete this brief sketch of the new criminal system, it may be mentioned that witnesses are divided into two classes, direct and collateral. Direct evidence is of the ordinary character. Collateral is the evidence of persons who, though their relationship to the accused partially invalidates their testimony,—as wife and husband, child and parent, master and servant,—may nevertheless be usefully heard for purposes of comparison.

In modern times witnesses in a Japanese law court are not "sworn" to give true evidence: they are merely required to asseverate solemnly. Yet it is an error to say, as has been often said,