very beginning down to the execution of the criminal, if he be condemned to suffer death, rests with the procurator, who unites in his own person the functions of public prosecutor and of grand jury.
The present judiciary consists almost entirely of graduates of the Law College of the Imperial University and of the private law colleges, of which there are six in Tōkyō and eight altogether in the empire. About a thousand young men graduate yearly. Lawyers are bound to pass a certain examination before being admitted to practise at the bar; but it is of a very theoretical nature. The new law concerning the constitution of courts requires candidates for judgeships to pass two competitive examinations, unless they are graduates of the University, in which case they need only pass the second of the two, after having served as probationary judges for a term of three years. Judges are appointed for life; but the salaries paid are so miserably poor (from 600 to 4,000 yen, or £60 to £400 per annum!) that many of the ablest judges soon resign in order to become practising barristers, the bench thus, as has been sarcastically remarked, serving merely as a half-way house to the practise of the law. Things have indeed come to such a pass that in the spring of 1901 a number of the judges and public procurators actually went out on strike! The presidents of courts are, however, more highly remunerated. The president of the supreme court receives 5,500 yen (£550), and is of shinnin rank.[1] The chief procurator receives 5,000 yen (£500) and is of chokunin rank.
The system of trial, as well in civil as in criminal cases, is inquisitorial. It was so in Old Japan, and is so in France, whence the greater part of modern Japanese law has been derived. Formerly no convictions were made except on confession by the prisoner. Hence an abundant use of torture, now happily abolished,[2] and a tendency, even in civil cases, to find against
