The Japanese

And The Role

Of Law

There is a fundamental dif ference between the role of law in Japanese society and in the West. As in many other areas of Japanese culture, the un derlying principles of the con tractual relationship and the legal system are flexibility and

carefully nurtured ambiguity.

In other words, rather than set tling matters in black-and white terms, the Japanese prefer to leave some areas

intentionally grey so that there will be room for modifications and adaptations later on. As a result, despite a comprehensive

legal code, the Japanese

people’s daily lives, both public

and private, are still largely governed not by laws but by non-legal, social norms. For evidence one need only look at the small number of lawyers in Japan. Whereas the United States has nearly 400 000 lawyers, Japan, with half the population of the US, has fewer than 15 000.

According to the Western way of thinking, the law represents the world as it should be, with the aim being to close the gap between the law and

the reality of daily life by

changing or refining one or the other. By contrast, the Japanese view the law as something to be revered but not invoked except in the most extreme instances. It is something like a treasured family sword handed down from generation to generation. The sword is not for killing; rather

it serves as a symbol of the fam

ily’s unity and social standing,

For a member of the family to use the sword in anger is a clear sign that he has exhausted all other means to solve his prob lem and has failed. Likewise, the Japanese even look with disfavour on reminders of the law’s presence. In contrast to the US, Europe. Australia, and even many parts of Asia, one seldom sees signs in Japan

reminding the citizenry what

fines will be levied for littering or jaywalking or other legal in f ract ions.

The Japanese feel that the application of an identical norm to all is not fair. People and cases simply vary too much from one to another for that, On the surface, the result of that approach might seem to be lawlessness. But the fact is. of course, that Japan’s crime rate is one of the lowest in the world, and Japan has far fewer labour disputes than most other industrialised nations, The very precision of the law is alien to the Japanese. They

are reluctant to quantify human relationships, to reduce them to predictable constants in the way the law often must.

In nearly every instance, human relationship takes pre cedence over legal rights and responsibility. If a Japanese is involved in an automobile ac cident, his first reaction is often to send apologies and perhaps a gift to the victim. But such gestures should in no way be interpreted as an admission of guilt. It is simply a matter of form.

Needless to say, Japanese abroad are often shocked by the foreigners’ penchant to go to court. The dismay is under standable. At home, most problems are settled by rec onciliation or mediation. The idea is to strike a balance be tween the two sides of a dis pute, rather than necessarily determine the right and wrong of a situation. Compromises are of course not unknown in Western law, but the degree of concession is uniformly much greater in Japan.

In recent years, Japanese firms have seriously considered direct overseas investments. An increase in such investments will require Japanese firms to work closely with attorneys of the host country, as they will have to comply with local laws as well as foreign exchange regulations. Added to this is

Japan’s responsibility to play

an active role in assisting the economic development of the

entire Pacific region, especially

South-east Asia. Since Aus tralia, New Zealand, the United States and Japan must work together to bring stability to this region, we have major

tasks ahead concerning capital

investment and other aspects of international business.