As Japan prepares to switch to a jury system, the government has been running mock trials to expose people to the idea. There’s a big cultural challenge, though.

“I think there is also the matter of how much he has repented,” one of the judges said. “Has he genuinely, deeply repented, or has the defendant repented in his own way? What’s the degree? I mean, some could even say that he hasn’t repented at all.”

Hoping for some response, the judge waited 14 seconds, then said, “What does everybody think?”

Nine seconds passed. “Doesn’t anyone have any opinions?”

After six more seconds, one woman questioned whether repentance should lead to a reduced sentence. “The way the defendant expresses himself and such, it could be viewed as someone who’s not good at it,” she said. “So there’s no way for us to know what is the degree of repentance from how he has repented in his own way.”

I’m reminded of our work with consumers in Japan; we got a lot of warning from people about what kind of answers the Japanese wouldn’t give us. I was somewhat nervous that things would tank entirely, but in fact, an open-ended conversational approach (with lots of follow up) worked out very well. The two situations (trials and design research sessions) are completely different; we didn’t represent the state, for one thing! Still, there’s a cultural layer to this story that many will no doubt recognize.

Here’s a low point in our culture for personal accountability

Two of the jurors who voted to acquit singer Michael Jackson of child molestation and other charges say they regret their decisions.

Jurors Ray Hultman and Eleanor Cook, who both have pending book deals, planned to appear Monday night on the new MSNBC show ‘Rita Cosby: Live and Direct.’

In a preview shown Monday on NBC’s ‘Today,’ Cosby asked Cook if the other jurors will be angry with her.

‘They can be as angry as they want to. They ought to be ashamed. They’re the ones that let a pedophile go,’ responded Cook, 79.

Hultman, 62, told Cosby he was upset with the way other jurors approached the case: ‘The thing that really got me the most was the fact that people just wouldn’t take those blinders off long enough to really look at all the evidence that was there.’

So we gave these people responsibility to pass judgment based on evidence, and render a verdict. They did so, and now some are blaming the others for the result? I’m sure there was tension and discomfort and hostility (we’ve all seen 12 Angry Men, right?) and more, but if Cook believes that Jackson is a pedophile, why is she blaming the others for letting him go? Looks like she let him go!

Now that is disgusting!