Historically, Japanese customs instituted an avoidance of legal involvement, based upon Confucian doctrines, and Japanese principles of harmony;[1] anyone brought before a court for a criminal or civil matter suffered public and private humiliation, since they disrupted harmony.
[6] Due to cultural traditions, Japanese have rarely used lawsuits as a means to settle disputes.
In-house counsel are still relatively rare in Japan, with only 770 of the 32,000 registered bengoshi working in corporate law departments as of January 2013.
[9] Foreign law firms have been permitted to hire Japanese attorneys since 2005, and such firms as Clifford Chance, Morrison & Foerster and White & Case have built large Japanese law practices that handle domestic matters for domestic clients.
[10] With several minor exceptions, attorneys at law are required to pass a national bar examination (司法試験, shihō shiken, lit.
This path allows to skip law school and thus avoid paying high tuition.
Therefore, the top law schools in Japan are competing with each other by achieving higher bar pass rate.
When the students pass the final examination (nikai shiken) at the LTRI, they become lawyers, prosecutors, or judges.
[8] As of August 2014, there were 6,326 female attorneys in Japan that were admitted to the bar,[11] comprising about 18% of Japanese lawyers.
[12] Before World War II, attorneys qualified in foreign countries could join a Japanese bar with special permission from the Supreme Court.
[5] The quasi-membership was abolished by judicial reforms in 1955,[5] and was replaced by the attorney at foreign law (外国法事務弁護士, gaikokuhō jimu bengoshi) membership in 1986.
They are classified by the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) as "Special members in Okinawa", and nine of them are still in practice as of August 2014.
[5] Large law firms have been organized in Tokyo, Osaka and other major cities, and have grown dramatically in recent years.
[5] They are classified by the JFBA as Legal Profession Corporation (弁護士法人, bengoshi hōjin),[5][13] and there are 775 law firms who joined the bar in this capacity as of August 2014.