title: Diversität und Justizsystem in Japan
Creators: name: Bälz, Moritz
Publisher: name: Fachinformationsdienst (FID) Asien
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Japan
subject: Justiz
subject: Reform
subject: Gesellschaft
subject: Vielfalt
subject: Geschichte 2001-2018
subject: 347

description: Diversity and the Justice System in Japan The comprehensive reform of the justice system, undertaken in Japan during the first decade of this new century, on the one hand illustrates how law reacts to increasing diversity in society, and on the other emphasizes how law itself often fosters diversity. In the Recommendations of the Justice System Reform Council (JSRC) of 2001, which have served as a blueprint for the reform, diversification (tayōka) constitutes as a key term, even if it remains somewhat ambiguous. For the JSRC, the increasing diversity in Japanese society, interlinked with the de-regulation resulting from earlier reforms, is given as the main reason why the Japanese justice system needs fundamental reform in order to meet the growing and diversifying demand foreseen for the new century. But diversity, at the same time, is also a major element in the measures taken by the legislator in order to eliminate the shortcomings of the status quo. Within the first of the three »columns« of the reform, which aims to adjust the institutions of the justice system to meet public expectations, one vital element is the diversification of dispute resolution. The reform, therefore, has not only brought about major changes to court proceedings, but has simultaneously aimed to strengthen various forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), such as commercial arbitration, private mediation, and the conciliation of labor disputes. In this respect, the reform has, to date, produced mixed results. Diversification, furthermore, is an important catchword within the reform’s second column, which is devoted to the legal profession and legal education. The latter arguably constitutes the pivotal, and certainly the most controversial, part of the reform. Increasing the number of legal professionals, which by international standards has long been extraordinarily small in Japan, together with applying certain other measures, has led to a certain diversification of the legal profession and legal services. With regard to the targets for the candidates who may successfully pass the national bar examination, however, the JSRC’s recommendations have been followed only in part, but not least, due to political pressure from the Japanese bar. This, in turn, has exacerbated the crisis surrounding newly-established law schools and, so far, has significantly hampered the diversification of legal education. According to the ambitious aims of the JSRC, the justice reform was not only established to react to the increasing diversity in Japanese society by comprehensively strengthening the justice system; it was also supposed to accomplish nothing less than finally implanting the rule of law deeply within Japanese society. With regard to the diversification of the services offered by the justice system, these goals have, to date, been realized only in part.
description: Japan 2018: Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, p. 178