Arbitration Reform in Japan: Reluctant Legislature and Institutional Challenges

Abstract

Reforms to the arbitration legal framework in Japan have been managed in various ways by legislative, judicial and arbitration institutions. The principal purpose of these reforms has been to make ‘Japanese’ arbitration more appealing and accessible to the international market, while a secondary aim has been to promote arbitration and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) for Japanese companies. This chapter analyses what these reforms have achieved.

It summarises the current framework of arbitration in Japan, then the recent reforms to Japanese arbitration law and practice. Key features are that law reform for arbitration is basically initiated by academics, the business sector plays a limited and quite diffuse role, and legal practitioners are still not very active either. The chapter proposes further reforms in specific areas of arbitration law and practice in both international and domestic contexts. This manuscript also briefly cites online summaries, by one or both of us, regarding some new Japanese developments in 2018.

Keywords: dispute resolution, arbitration, Japanese law, Asian law, comparative law, Law reform

JEL Classification: K10, K30, K33