
Dec. 18, 2005 - Legal loner courts controversy every day
By TOMOKO OTAKE - Japan Times
Any weekday, if you happen to drop by the Tokyo District/High/Summary Court building in Kasumigasaki, among all the besuited lawyers and the like you'll likely spy a blond, bearded young man leafing through the day's schedules in the first-floor lobby, or shuffling in and out of courtrooms big and small. He won't be hard to spot; he'll be wearing a skirt.
Every morning for more than six years now, comedian Asozan Daifunka (literally, "the great explosion of Mount Aso") has commuted to the courthouse, enduring rush-hour crowds and even forsaking a full-time job, so that he can witness the trials of complete strangers all day long.
This guy was "ordered" to go and sit in on the Aum Shinrikyo / Shoko Asahara trial to cull new material for his stand-up act, but was I allowed in to laugh at Robert Blake?