Only attorneys can file suits and appear in court. One unfortunate side effect has been a social dependence on organized crime for help in settling thorny disputes, Grondine says. Recently, however, as legal demand from Japan's own companies and citizens has exploded, politicians, bureaucrats and the bar association have become more open to reform. But reform comes slowly in Japan. That was in 1898.
Attorneys are few in Japan, and that's a problem.
Lawsuits have doubled, but courts don't have enough litigators. For centuries, Japan's harmonious methods for settling disputes helped shape the nation's cultural identity. And as recently as the 1980s, the country credited its relative paucity of lawyers as one reason Japan Inc. was drubbing the rest of the world. That's right, subsidies for lawyers. He had visions of a quiet, rustic life when he moved to Hamada, on the Japan Sea, last year.