Lay judge, or saiban-in , 1 courts try serious cases in Japan. 2 Sitting together, professional judges and lay judges decide guilt and sentence. Resembling Anglo-American jurors, and unlike lay judges elsewhere, saiban-in are selected at random and sit in only one case. Dissimilar to mixed tribunals in some countries, where they cannot, or do not in practice, Japanese lay judges question witnesses directly, giving them a more active role in fact fi nding than jurors.