Law of Japan - Legal Professions

Legal Professions

Japan recognizes a large number of legal professions, however the number of lawyers is significantly fewer than in the United States. This is due to the fact that Japanese law is based on the Continental European civil law system and a very small number of lawyers (advocates) are complemented by large numbers of civil law notaries and scriveners. Japan introduced a new legal training system in 2004 as part of a justice system reform. The justice system reform has been criticized for failing to incorporate a gender perspective. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the new legal training system on gender issues. The major professions, each of which has a separate qualification process, include:

• Attorney at law (弁護士, bengoshi?)
• Registered Attorney at foreign law (外国法事務弁護士, gaikokuhō jimu bengoshi?, or "gaiben")
• Notary public (公証人, kōshōnin?)
• Administrative scrivener (行政書士, gyōsei shoshi?)
• Judicial scrivener (司法書士, shihō shoshi?)
• Certified public accountant (公認会計士, kōnin kaikeishi?)
• Certified tax accountant (税理士, zeirishi?)
• Patent attorney (弁理士, benrishi?)
• Certified social insurance and labor consultant (社会保険労務士, shakai hoken rōmushi?)
• Land and House Investigator (土地家屋調査士, tochikaokuchousashi?)

In-house legal advisors at major corporations are almost entirely unregulated, although there has been a trend in the past decade towards attorneys moving in-house.