January/1/2004 New Year's Greetings from JFBA President

As a new year begins, I would like to extend my best wishes for a bright future to all of you. It has been expected that the 21st century would be the century of peace and human rights, it was noticeable, however, that incidents against this expectation happened last year, such as the attacks on Iraq by the US and UK forces, increasing terror attacks, and the decision to dispatch the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to Iraq. We, practicing attorneys, should intensify our activities to protect peace and human rights in accordance with international principles of the Rule of Law and the Constitution's pacifist principles, by collaborating with legal professionals in the world. From this point of view, the LAWASIA conference held in Tokyo last September was a significant event. Over 1000 legal professionals from Asian countries attended the conference and exchanged views on human rights, environmental issues, etc. The judicial reform is in its final stage. We have been involved in designing the judicial system and drafting the related bills from their early stage, and making our utmost efforts to reflect the JFBA's opinions based on the realization of "Justice of the People" by convincing the people involved and supporting the civic movements. I believe our activities, as a whole, are achieving steady results in various aspects of the judicial reform. In the JFBA's extraordinary general meeting held in last November, the proposals for adjusting the JFBA's Articles of Associations and related rules were approved to complete the reform of the attorney system, in which we are aiming to relax restrictions on assuming public posts, engaging in business and activities, and attorney's fee, as well as to promote transparency in the procedures for discipline maintenance, disciplinary actions, the administration of the JFBA, etc. In this coming April, law schools are going to be opened and approximately 400 members from the JFBA will educate the future legal professionals in the schools. We are now doing our best to maintain the economic support for the schools and students and the allowance payment system for judicial apprentices. For realizing democracy and building the popular base of the judicial system, it is indispensable to establish a 'saiban-in system' wherein laypersons would also serve as members of a judicial panel. It should be a system in which the 'saiban-in' (laypersons) subjectively and substantially take part in criminal trials to reflect various common sense beliefs. Fundamental changes in the criminal procedures, such as expanding the disclosure of evidence, are also necessary in order to make the 'saiban-in system' work effectively and efficiently. There are positive developments in the judicial reform discussions, for example, it has been decided that a new system for labor conciliation will be established. Concerning the establishment of the Legal Services Centers (LSCs), we will exert every possible effort to develop a better system by solving the outstanding issues including how to preserve the autonomy of each attorney in operating the centers and making defenses, as well as coordination with legal counseling services being provided by local bar associations. Regarding the issues of attorney fee shifting, our activities have resulted in that each party has responsibility for its own attorney's fees unless there is an agreement in the litigation that the loser shall pay the winner's attorney's fees. To solve the pending issues, we should further take actions including lobbying activities by cooperating with the citizens. Furthermore, we will improve our training programs and reform in lawyer's practice, as one of the examples, "Attorneys in the 21st century Symposium" will be held in March. We will go all out to accomplish these historic projects and I would like to ask for your continued cooperation. Tohru Motobayashi President Japan Federation of Bar Associations