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Introduction to Japanese Legal Research

This guide includes links to many of the best websites for finding information about the laws and legal system of Japan and Japan's business, political & legal culture. English language sources are the focus of this guide.

This research guide also describes how to find books and articles on Japanese legal issues, and includes the Law & Business In Japan Research Tips.

If you have any questions on your research, stop by the Reference Desk and ask a Librarian, or e-mail , Int'l & Foreign Law Librarian and make an appointment to discuss your research.

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Find a Topic

News, Blogs & Current Awareness Updates

Legal News and Blogs

General Japanese News Sources

Business & Economic News

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Lexis: Japan News and Legal Analysis

These contain Japan news sources in English. Many are business or law oriented.

There are a limited number of Japanese secondary law sources available on Lexis. They can be found by following the path shown below:

Foreign Laws & Legal Sources > Japan

The main resources available are:

  • Doing Business in Japan - by Prof. Zentaro Kitagawa, Kyoto Comparative Law Center is a useful guide for understanding Japanese business dealings. Includes translations of many important Japanese business laws, with explanations of the laws and business practices. Describes basic Japanese legal terms, intellectual property issues, and import/export regulations.
  • Martindale-Hubbell(R) Law Digest - Asian Law Digests - Contains the Japan Law Digest which provides very good summaries of many areas of law with citations to code sections.
  • Intellectual Property Protection in Asia - Includes a chapter on Japan.

Westlaw: Japan News & Legal Analysis

Westlaw contains a limited number of resources covering Japanese news and law. Most of the resources are news sources. There are a few journals focusing on Japanese law and some Japan patent information. If the Westlaw links below don't work, you can easily follow the research path:

All Databases > International/Worldwide Materials > Asia and the Pacific Rim > Individual Country Materials > Japan > Business & News

Most of the Japan coverage can be found in Westlaw by following the links shown below:

All Databases > International/Worldwide Materials > Databases Listed Alphabetically by Country or Region > Japan

&

All Databases > International/Worldwide Materials > Asia and the Pacific Rim > Individual Country Materials > Japan - includes Japan patent databases

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BNA International Trade Reporter

BNA International Trade Reporter - News about Japan and International trade.

The Japan section of the BNA Trade Reporter, can be found by selecting the All Countries link in the sidebar and then looking under the Japan heading.

Japan Law Podcasts

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Find Articles

Subscription Databases: Lexis-Nexis, Westlaw, HeinOnline, BNA International Trade Reporter

The Hastings Law Library subscribes to a number of Internet-accessible resources that may be useful in your research. All of our online resources are listed here. You can access all of them on campus. Most of them also allow remote access. If you are not on campus, and you click on the database, you will be directed to this screen. To use the database off-campus, enter your name (as indicated on your Hastings ID) and your ID barcode number.

  • Lexis, Westlaw & HeinOnline - Sometimes law review articles can be one of the best places to find current research on your topic. The sources above can be used to find journal articles. Although there is a lot of overlap on Lexis and Westlaw, you will some unique articles by searching both databases. [This search will cover most of the law review articles written since the mid-1990s.] If you have a citation to an law review article that is not on Westlaw or Lexis (and is older than the last year or two), you will probably be able to print a PDF version of the article from HeinOnline.]
  • BNA International Trade Reporter - International trade news. The weekly report service provides comprehensive, current information on developments affecting the trade and international business policies of the US and major US trading partners. It includes the latest news and trends in US trade policy, including regulatory, legislative, and judicial developments, activities of the International Trade Commission, World Trade Organization, and Departments of State, Treasury & Commerce.
  • Subscribe to BNA news services - Hastings students who want to receive a free weekly email update with the contents (and links to articles) of The BNA International Trade Reporter should sign-up here, then click on " BNA publications." [Note: To access this database off-campus, you are required to authenticate that you are a Hastings student by entering your name and the barcode number from your Hastings ID card.]

Collections of Articles on Japanese Law

Free Online Japanese Journals - English Language

  • Social Science Japan, the English-language newsletter of the Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo, provides concise information on key people, important issues, and recent developments in social science research on Japan. Issues are available for download.
  • Kobe University Law Review - Select English language articles are available for download as .pdf's.
  • The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus - In-depth critical analysis of the forces shaping the Asia-Pacific . . . and the world. Focuses on geopolitics, economics, history, society, culture, international relations and forces for change in the Asia-Pacific. Peer reviewed journal. About.

Japanese Law Journals at UC Hastings (Print)

To find the list of Japanese Law Journals in print, currently available at Hastings, follow this link to a subject search of Law -- Japan -- Periodicals in the UC Hastings catalog.

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Search Legal Periodicals Indexes

If you are having difficulty finding relevant articles, you can search the following periodical indexes. These searches are only for the title or abstract of the article, these are NOT FULL-TEXT searches.

About Legal Periodical Indexes

Unlike Lexis and Westlaw full-text law review databases, legal periodical indexes include almost every U.S. law review article from 1980 to present.

Advantage to searching these indexes:

  • It allows you to search more journal articles.
  • Too many irrelevant results from your full-text searches? An index search may give you better results since you are not searching the full-text of each article.
  • Doing historical research? Articles published between 1918 and 1980 are only searchable using an index. Select "Legal Periodicals Retro" when searching the Index to Legal Periodicals & Books for these older articles.

What to do after finding an article in an index or bibliography?

If you have found an article in an index or mentioned in a bibliography, and would like to know where you can access a full-text version, start with:

You can search for the journal title in:

San Francisco Public Library Non-Law Journals

If an article you have found is not in a law-related journal, and not in one of the non-law online resources at Hastings, you may want to search the online databases collection at the San Francisco Public Library. You can check to see if the journal issue you want is accessible from one of the databases provided by the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL), by searching their Periodical Finder. Or you can search through the various SFPL journal indexes. Any resident of California may apply for a SFPL Library card to get online full-text access.

Retrieve Articles using Inter-Library Loan

If you are unable to find the article using UC Hastings and SFPL resources, you can search for an article using FirstSearch and searching the ArticleFirst database and then click on the ILL icon at the top of the page to request the article.

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Find Books

Finding Japanese Law Books at Hastings

If you can find a few good books covering your topic, it can make your research much easier. Hastings has a good but very small collection of books on Japanese law. Use the Hastings Catalog to find books on your topic and check the Course Reserve list.

Here is a sample search which locates most of the books in the Hastings library covering Japanese law. The following subject searches may be useful, and you can create your own Advanced searches by combining more than one search term in more than one search field.

Finding Law Books with a section on Japan law

It might also be worth looking for subject-specific books with country-by-country summaries of the law. For example, these titles all have good current chapters on Japan:

You can find these types of sources by combining a subject search for the topic and then modify the search in Advanced Search to add the keyword "Japan". For example, the subject search term "Culture and law" can be combined with a key word search for "Japan" to produce the search (d:(Culture and law) ) and (Japan).

Another example is d:(Competition, Unfair) and (Japan)

These types of searches will find books with sections on Japan even if the whole book is not about Japan.

Browsing for Books

Books at Hastings are organized by call number.  Most of the Japanese Law books are on the 6th floor in the KNX call number range.  If you find a book that looks interesting, and you are not on campus, click on the call number to browse titles on the shelf nearby. Of course, if you are on campus, browsing the shelves is a great way to find relevant books.

Borrow Books Through Inter-Library loan

For a wider selection of available books, search to see if other libraries have books you can borrow through inter-library loan. If the book you want is not in the Hastings Library, or you would like to locate other books on your topic, use FirstSearch, a database containing information about books from most of the libraries in the English-speaking world. Search the WorldCat database to find book; click on the ILL icon at the top of the page to request the book.

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Sources of Japanese Cases and Legislation

Free Online Sources

General


Supreme Court of Japan maintains:

Cabinet Secretariat maintains:

Cabinet Legislation Bureau maintains:

Ministry of Justice maintains:

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
The Ministry's Transparency of Japanese Law Project, provides English translations of select Japanese legal documents. User can search by key word or citation for:

The Asian Legal Information Institute maintains databases, inconsistently populated with Japanese legal information. Some of the more extensive databases include:

Senrei Systems Inc. provides a:

  • Searchable database containing summaries of important recent constitutional, civil and commercial law cases from Japan as well as articles and essays on a variety of topics relating to law in Japan.
Nagoya University's Graduate School of Information Science has archives of a translation project and provides:

Commercial Law


Zentaro Kitagawa's Doing business in Japan - Includes commentary on business related law, plus translations of some relevant statues. Not current in print but through Lexis, there is a current:

Roderick Seeman maintains a web page with unofficial English translations of:

Mizuho Securities, maintains:

Research and links related to Japanese business law - Including English translations of finance related legislation.

Intellectual Property Law


The Copyright Research and Information Center is a public service corporation authorized by the Government of Japan. The website provides information in English such as:

Institute of Intellectual Property (IIP)- Japanese Cases in English. Searching is possible by Free word(s), Court, Date of the Judgment, Case Number and/or Type of Right

Japan Intellectual Property High Court (April 2005-)

Waseda Institute for Corporation Law and Society/Research Center for the Legal System of Intellectual Property

World Intellectual Property Organization

World Intellectual Property Organization- Japan

 

Family Law

The Children's Rights Network maintains a web page of Japanese Family law information including essays and relevant Japanese laws in English and Japanese.

Collections of Laws in Print

EHS law bulletin series, Japan 
KNX17 .J32 (6th Stacks)
(English translations of Japanese laws. Not current.)

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Japanese Legal Citation

For further assistance with citation, see the following sections of the University of Washington's Japanese Legal Research Guide:

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Japanese Government Online

National Diet of Japan (Japan's Legislative Branch)

House of Representatives | House of Councillors | Diet Related Laws

The National Diet Library maintains a web site with extensive information services in English on:

Executive branch

Prime Minister | Ministries: Cabinet Office |National Public Safety Commission (Japanese Only) | Internal Affairs | Justice | Foreign Affairs | Finance | Education | Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare | Agriculture | Economy | Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism | Environment | Defense

Judicial Branch

Supreme Court | Basic Laws | Legislation Links

Select Government documents

White Papers & Reports maintained by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). eg. White Paper on International Economy and Trade

The Cabinet Office maintains online archives of:

The Japan Fair Trade Commission maintains a website of:

Other Resources

Embassy

General Japan Government Links

 

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Country Profiles, The Legal System & Statistics

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Japan Law Research Guides

 

Updated September 6, 2011
Prepared by Foreign Comparative & Int'l Law Librarian [UC Hastings]
& Catherine Deane, Reference Librarian [Thomas Jefferson School of Law]

Copyright © 2012 U.C. Hastings College of the Law. Redistribution or commercial use is prohibited without express written permission.