The Who’s Who of the Japanese Legal World

Many people who come to Japan are accustomed to working with attorneys to solve personal and business problems and might wonder why Japanese people don’t do the same. There is a long-standing debate as whether Japanese people have a different feeling or relationship to law and lawsuits and although many Japanese people associate attorneys and lawsuits with undesirable confrontation, the undeniable reality is that there are very few attorneys (bengoshi, see below table) in Japan (only around 40,000 in 2018) and the bulk (around 58%) work in Tokyo and Osaka.

Japanese attorneys have traditionally focused on lawsuits and disputes. As the Japan Federation of Bar Associations’ homepage explains:

This focus differs from many attorneys in the US and other countries who offer comprehensive services for business transactions as “transactional attorneys” and “other legal services” is quite a wide category of services like immigration which non-Japanese may find essential.

Japanese attorneys are subject to the same complaints made about attorneys in other countries with incompetency and inaccessibility (not responding to calls and email) being frequently cited as complaints. Non-attorney legal professionals will tend to be more specialized in specific procedures with some handling only one category such as restaurant, construction, or alcohol license and will be more client-orientated. 

As well, non-Japanese clients will frequently be frustrated by the unwillingness of Japanese attorneys to accomplish their goals. Japanese attorneys, particularly compared to US attorneys, are reluctant to be proactive for their clients and non-Japanese clients are often disappointed by Japanese attorneys telling them why their goal cannot be accomplished rather than finding solutions. As well, some non-Japanese have the frustrating experience of having their case rejected if the goal is not an immediate lawsuit. Non-attorney legal professional may be more willing to suggest alternatives and accept small jobs and may have a better understanding of what government officials are looking for in making filings which can be particularly important for visas where immigration officials have wide discretion to refuse.

Finally, there are very few Japanese attorneys who are competent in English or other languages and those who are fluent will frequently charge much higher fees for work in English compared with non-attorney legal professionals.

These days, larger law firms (both foreign and Japanese) will frequently employ non-attorney legal professionals and other paralegals and foreign attorneys, and so the above benefits can be realized together with the expertise of Japanese attorneys although the fees will be higher than when hiring a non-attorney legal professional directly.

Many embassies including the US embassy offer notary services which may be substantially less expense than Japanese notary publics (kosho nin) depending on the notarization requirements.