The four trials, from the fifth trial in November 2020 to the eighth trial in March 2021 (scheduled to take place), will end with a brief exchange between the prosecution and the defense. , The stalemate continues.
From January 8th to March 21st, 2021, Japan's metropolitan areas were once again declared a state of emergency. The trial continued, but no substantial progress was made. The number of listeners has decreased. Defendant Aoi has no turn.
The prosecution demanded that the defense provide evidence to support the allegations. The defense submitted 13 academic treatises to the prosecution to support the allegations. Eleven of them were English treatises. The prosecution argued that English treatises could not be understood correctly without translating the entire text into Japanese. The defense argued that it was impossible to translate the whole sentence into Japanese, and that there was no problem because the English treatise was submitted in full.
After all, for treatises written in English, only the abstracts and main charts will be translated into Japanese.
It was Kikuyama, Aoi himself, myself, and about five collaborators who did the process from selection to translation of the treatise. I don't necessarily want to cooperate only with the defense. Although it is a criminal trial, there are no victims, and the prosecution's and defense's arguments are not in conflict in the first place. What seems to be in conflict is a misunderstanding due to the prosecution's lack of study. Attorney Kikuyama met me for the first time at the first trial, but he persuaded me, saying, "Let's educate the prosecution." As part of the social activities of university professors, I decided to participate in educational activities on drug issues.
Kikuyama has been studying very hard, even though he is not a specialist in drug cases. Prosecutors, on the other hand, seem to be trying to learn almost nothing. I'm too busy with work and I don't have time to study, but withdrawing the prosecution makes it even more troublesome. I think there were many mistakes in Aoi's actions, so I think the prosecution's allegations make sense. But the lack of a humble attitude toward the prosecutors, who are given their lives and jobs by our blood tax, was a good reason why I couldn't trust them.
The trial provided an unexpected but invaluable opportunity for official debate about the substance DMT and the herbal tea Ayahuasca. Rather, I would like experts such as the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Institute for Scientific Research behind the prosecution to understand it.
I shared the work of translating the treatise as efficiently as possible, but in the end, as a translator, I refined all the translation results. From analytical chemistry to psychiatry and statistical analysis methods used in research, I also studied desperately while doing my main job. For me, who transferred from Kyoto University to the University of Tokyo and turned to the field of psycho-anthropology, studying microbiology reminds me of what I learned at Kyoto University, where I was in the master's program, and for thirty years of life sciences. I was surprised at the progress of the university, and it was a task to go back and relearn. The Kyoto District Court is located on the opposite bank of Kyoto University across the Kamo River, so it reminded me of the time when I was excited about my studies every time I visited.
At the 8th trial, I was finally able to submit all 13 treatises with Japanese translations. However, the prosecution's opinions were all disagreeable. Nothing was shown as to which argument in which treatise was problematic, and all were rejected because all the treatises were unreliable. It seems that the judge has finally begun to think that the situation is strange.
Defendant Aoi is still positive thinking, laughing saying that this was thirty years too early. According to him, the prosecutor in charge, Tachikawa, tried to receive the translated material, but his boss told him that he should disagree. It seems that if the Kyoto District Court agrees and is acquitted, it will be disadvantageous when fighting at the next Osaka High Court. What does that mean? As usual, I don't really understand the reasoning behind the trial.
Apparently, it is inevitable that Aoi will be acquitted by the Kyoto District Court, and it seems that a small shake has begun to occur inside the Kyoto District Public Prosecutor's Office or the Japanese prosecution organization. I could understand it.
People who lack humility for knowledge are leaving Rakuchu. Even if the center of politics moves to Tokyo, I hope Kyoto is still a place to generate Japanese culture. And the Kyoto District Court will save the research results, which are a little too early to be read, in Japanese.
The trial has not progressed much since the fifth trial. However, Aoi is also an actor. He never bores the listener. On December 21, after the sixth trial held on the afternoon of the winter solstice, Kikuyama explained the points of the trial at the lawyer's hall adjacent to the Kyoto District Court. Was the audience about 20 people?
Defendant Aoi, who was in the audience, suddenly stood up, took the hand of his fiancée sitting next to him, and took the stage. With no time for the audience to think about what was happening, the two immediately kissed and hugged hot. It is a common greeting in Brazil, but Japanese people do not do such an act in public. The audience was disappointed. The two have proclaimed that they are now signing a marriage registration.
Why is this timing? There is talk of acquittal or a prison marriage, but this was also an unexpected event.
In addition, Kikuyama was appointed as a witness for this court marriage. And I was nominated as another witness. There was water in my ears. I wasn't publicly involved in the trial, and I didn't prepare any celebrations. As expected, he has no criminal record, but he has a history of divorce and is not qualified to be a senior in his family life.
In the first place, I didn't know what a witness was in marriage registration. Fortunately, I was able to ask the lawyer Kikuyama, a legal expert next door, what the witnesses mean. He was taught that the witnesses in the marriage registration are no more, no less, confirming that they are willing to marry. I asked them if they were willing to marry and signed the marriage registration. At the very least, as a surprise, I stamped a seal dug in the Dongba characters that I happened to have.
The marriage registration was submitted and accepted by the Kyoto City Nakagyo Ward Office, which is neither the birthplace nor the place of residence of either couple, but will be understood as the birthplace of domestic Ayahuasca culture in the not too distant future.
Copyright 04-04-2021/2564 JST
(C) Tatsu HIrukawa
