Activities Related to the Practice of Law

Legal Practice Reforms

Acknowledging the need to expand, strengthen, and reform the practice of law in light of the substantially increased number of attorneys resulting from the judicial reform, the JFBA has embarked on a program to research, study, and review legal practice in order to envisage an ideal model for the 21st century and to draft and actualize proposals for new systems. Reinforcement of the "rule of law," which is the objective of the judicial reform, requires improved access to the judicial system, which cannot be attained simply by increasing the number of attorneys. In order for the "rule of law" to penetrate into every corner of society, we need a system under which attorneys can work in every region, field, and organization so the people may have contact with attorneys smoothly.

The JFBA has conducted further research and studies, based on the outcome of previous research and studies, and implemented various material matters on legal practice reforms including the commencement of services that provide attorney-related information such as the "Himawari Search" (a system that allows searches for attorneys by fields they represent on the web), improvement of training systems (wire report of training programs through internet, etc.), penetration of in-house attorneys into corporations or governmental bodies, demand that the remuneration of court-appointed defense attorneys be raised, review of the quality of the legal professions, and research the economic basis of legal practice, to name a few.

In the wake of significant increases in the number of attorneys resulting from judicial system reforms, the JFBA has also begun to investigate programs to strengthen legal specialties and enable the expansion of law into new fields. In addition, the JFBA is actively identifying new demands for legal services in areas such as legislation, government administration, corporations, and others. For example, the JFBA has been actively engaged in research about proposing legislative issues on its own initiative and being involved with the legislative process. It also has established, through cooperation with the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency and other trade associations, the JFBA Small-Mid Company Legal Support Center to deal with various legal issues that small and medium companies face.

Further, with the belief that attorneys who are experts in legal practice and in the forefront of dispute resolution should play an active and central role in ADR, the JFBA has engaged in several programs and projects including promotional activities for ADR related organizations established and operated by local bar associations so that the ADR system is both trusted by and accessible to the general public.