Resolution of Traffic Accident Disputes and Judicial Activism in Japan

The topic of resolution of traffic accident cases in Japan has already seen two works in English: a 1989 article by J. Mark Ramseyer and Minoru Nakazato in the Journal of Legal Studies and a 1990 article by Takao Tanase in the Law and Society Review. Why yet another article? First, despite the fine treatment of a wide range of issues in those articles, neither of those works gave much attention to what I regard as one of the most interesting and important aspects of the Japanese treatment of automobile accident cases: namely, the role of the judiciary and the legal profession in creating and maintaining the system for resolving traffic accident disputes. That aspect of the story raises fascinating issues both in the Japanese setting (including posing the question of the impact of culture, at a somewhat deeper level than is discussed in either of the prior articles) and in comparative perspective. A second reason for this Article relates to my concern over the way in which Japanese law is often viewed. The manner in which the prior works have been received reflects a continuing and disturbing pattern in Western views of Japanese law: the pervasive staying power of certain enduring cultural myths and stereotypes, based on superficial indicia, in the face of rather compelling counterexpla nations

Four Views of Japanese Attorneys

The four articles translated below appeared in a special collection entitled: Bengoshi--san Monosatari-or, A Tale of Lawyers. This collection was No. 198 in the Bessatsu Takarajma series, a series that contains such other tides as: How to Develop Brain Power (Noryoku toreningu no gijutsu, No. 41), The Court Game (Salban gemu, No. 169), and The Dark Side of Real Estate (Fudosan no ura, No. 177). As these titles ·reflect, publications in the series are aimed at the mass market. not the world of academics. A further caveat is thatr as with the majority of the articles contained in Bengoshi-san Monogatari, the four articles that appear below were written by reporters and freelance writers, not bengoshi. Moreover, these articles were not based on comprehensive surveys. Rather, they are vignettes, in some cases based on interviews with several attoneys, in other cases based on interviews and visits with just one. As such, however, they provide fascinating glimpses into the work, lifestyles, and concerns of bengoshi. They do so from four perspectives. The first reports on a day in the life of a youngish attorney from a four-member firm based in Ginza; the second reflects the practice of an attorney who serves as a komon bengoshi (an attorney on open-ended retainer) and devotes his practice to the ongoing representation of various companies and individuals; the third examines the lives of attorneys in Shimane Prefecture, which, with only eighteen attorneys in active practice in the entire prefecture, has the fewest practicing attorneys of any prefecture in Japan; and the fourth focuses on the experiences of women attorneys

The Roles of Comparative Law: Inaugural Lecture for the Dan Fenno Henderson Professorship in East Asian Legal Studies

Being named to the Dan Fenno Henderson Professorship in East Asian Legal Studies is at one and the same time a proud and truly humbling moment. It is especially humbling to hold a professorship bearing the illustrious name of Dan Fenno Henderson. In the Japanese law field, Henderson is without peer. He created the field as we know it today, and his accomplishments are truly staggering

Restrictions on Political Activity by Judges in Japan and the United States: The Cases of Judge Teranishi and Justice Sanders

This Essay begins by setting out the basic facts of the two cases. After briefly examining the respective outcomes and legal reasoning, the Essay proceeds to a comparative examination of the procedures and the basic stance of the two systems

Keiken, tayōsei, soshite hō [Experience, Diversity, and the Law]

This essay was published in 2003, in Japanese, as my contribution to a tribute volume honoring Nozaki Ayako, a Ph.D. candidate at The University of Tokyo who passed away suddenly earlier that year. In an article she published in 1999, Nozaki had offered a thoughtful, perceptive critique of an article I had published four years before, dealing with the resolution of traffic accident disputes in Japan. Her article led me to reflect on the reasons for the difference in our views; and that in turn led to this essay. As indicated in the title, two key themes of this essay are experience and diversity. The underlying impetus for both Nozaki’s work and mine was first and foremost our respective life experiences, and those experiences deeply affected the perspectives from which we approached the same basic topic. In turn, the contrasting perspectives presented in our two works reflect the vital importance of diversity – in this case, diversity in life experiences, in backgrounds, and in gender – to legal education and to development of the law. The traffic accident example serves as a testament to the indispensable nature of experience and diversity for the law. Differing perspectives – shaped by many factors, including gender, race and status, as well as work and other life experiences – lead to differing views and new insights into the workings of the legal system, and these insights in turn inform the process of legal development and legal change. As raised directly in the final section, this essay also constituted an effort to influence teaching methods at Japan’s new law schools, which began operations in 2004, the year after this essay appeared. In its final set of Recommendations of June 2001, the Justice System Reform Council had listed diversity, along with openness and fairness, as the three central tenets for the new system of legal training. I viewed the heightened attention to diversity as one of the most important aspects of the Japanese reforms; and this essay represented one of my efforts to highlight the value of diversity to legal education and the legal profession. Looking back over fifteen years later, I’m sorry to report that, so far as I can tell, those efforts had virtually no impact.https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/faculty-chapters/1056/thumbnail.jp

Citizen Participation: Appraising the Saiban’in System

Article published in the Michigan State International Law Review

A Review of \u3ci\u3eWho Rules Japan?: Popular Participation in the Japanese Legal Process\u3c/i\u3e

Who Rules Japan? is a valuable addition to the literature on Japanese law. Seven substantive chapters explore important recent developments in a wide range of fields. The ten authors—including leading experts in criminal justice, labor law and other fields—all are highly qualified and all have undertaken extensive research. Each of the chapters breaks new ground; and collectively they provide a wealth of new information, new methodological approaches, and new theoretical insights. To summarize briefly, Leon Wolff, Luke Nottage, and Kent Anderson (who also served as editors for the entire volume) begin the book with a thoughtful Preface and Introduction (Chapter 1), in which they set out the overall framework and identify certain unifying themes. Those themes include the impact of reforms that grew out of the 2001 recommendations of the Justice System Reform Council (JSRC), with a special focus on “the extent to which the 2001 reform program has transformed the Japanese state—from an administrative state in which powerful elites ‘ruled’ over the economy, to a judicial state in which citizens participate more freely in public life and the law ‘rules’ over clashes of interests.

Book Review: Policing Japan

Professor Setsuo Miyazawa\u27s Policing in Japan: A Study on Making Crime represents a very valuable addition to the growing body of English-language works on the Japanese police. This is the first such observational study of the police by a Japanese scholar and the only study to examine the behavior of Japanese detectives. Miyazawa, a professor at Kobe University and one of the leading legal sociologists in Japan, has buttressed his own observations with an extensive, and revealing, questionnaire survey of police attitudes

Book Review

Professor Frank K. Upham\u27s Law and Social Change in Postwar Japan represents a major contribution to Western understanding of the process of legal change in Japan. In four excellent case studies spanning subject matters as diverse as the treatment of minorities and industrial planning, Upham reveals a legal culture of considerable complexity, which challenges simple generalizations. From this material, Upham seeks to derive a number of central themes. Certain of these themes are insightful and solidly supported by Upham\u27s own case studies and other materials on Japanese law. Other themes are more speculative, raising the danger that many of the complexities Upham has so effectively identified may again be lost from sight behind a new set of stereotypes. In any event, this book seems likely to generate considerable debate over the nature of law and legal change in Japan

Forces Driving and Shaping Legal Training Reform in Japan

After canvassing the history of, and rationale for, legal training reform, the article examines the recommendations of the Justice System Reform Council. It then examines some of the forces that led to the reforms; some of those forces that helped shape the reforms; and the major aspects of the reforms themselves. The second half of the article undertakes an initial assessment of the first year of operation of the new system, focusing on the University of Tokyo, and based upon the author\u27s first-hand experience