White Paper on Attorneys 2012

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Feature 1
JFBA’s Assistance for Disaster Victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake

I. JFBA’s Response to the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident　…　1

II. Statistical Results of Free Legal Consultations in Regard to the Great East Japan Earthquake 　…　2

1.	Contents of Legal Consultations in the Five Affected Prefectures	2
	◆How to Read Graphs◆	3
	(i) Relation between the Number of Legal Consultations and Their Contents	3
	(ii) How to Read the Data	4
2.	Changes in the Number of Legal Consultations on the Nuclear Power Plant Accident and Their Issues	8

III. Assistance for Disaster Victims　…　11

1.	Disaster related ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution)		11
2.	PR Activities		11

IV. JFBA’s Response to Double Loan Payment Issues　…　12

1.	Double Loan Payment Issues of Individuals		12
2.	Double Loan Payment Issues of Business Operators		16

V. Response to the Nuclear Power Plant Accident　…　18

1.	Efforts for Compensation for Damage from the Nuclear Power Plant Accident	18
	(1) Response to the Establishment of Compensation Standards by the Dispute Reconciliation Committee for Nuclear Damage Compensation	18
	(2) Establishment of the Nuclear Damage Compensation Dispute Resolution Center and the JFBA’s Cooperation in the Operation of the Center	18
2.	Efforts toward Providing Assistance for Victims	20
3.	Response to Other Issues Caused by the Nuclear Power Plant Accident	20

Feature 2
Judicial System Reform from a Statistical Point of View

Chapter 1 Judicial System Reform from a Statistical Point of View – Outline –　…　21

I.	Introduction	21
II.	Outline of the Judicial System Reforms	21
	1. The Gaining Momentum of the Judicial Reforms	21
	2. The Justice System Reform Council	21
	3. Social Agreement on the Reforms and Responsibilities of Related Institutions	22
III.	Systems Established in line with the Judicial System Reforms	22
	1. Enhancement of Access to Justice	22
	2. Enhancement and Acceleration of the Processes of Civil Lawsuits	22
	3. Reform of Criminal Justice System	23
	4. Instituting the Foundations of Public Participation	23
	5. Ideal Model for the Legal Profession Supporting the Judicial System	23
IV.	Future of the Judicial System Reforms	23

Chapter 2 Statistical Data in Relation to Judicial System Reforms　…　24

I.	Enhancement of Access to Justice	24
	1. Realization of Comprehensive Legal Support	24
	2. Solutions for Regional Shortages and Uneven Distribution of Attorneys	28
II.	Enhancement and Speeding up of Civil Lawsuits – The Number of Cases and Average Deliberation Time	31
III.	Ideal Model for the Legal Profession Supporting the Judicial System	33
	1. The Number of Legal Professionals and the Nurturing of Legal Professionals	33
	2. Reform of the Judge System	41

Part 1
Current Situation of Attorneys and Other Legal Professions

Chapter 1 Population of Attorneys　…　45

I.	Changes in the Number of Attorneys －1950 to 2012－	45
II.	Constitution According to Age	46
III.	Comparison of the Total Number of Lawyers, Judges, and Public Prosecutors with those of Foreign Countries	47
	1. The Number of People per Lawyer (Cross-country Comparison)	47
	2. The Number of People per Judge (Cross-country Comparison)	48
	3. The Number of People per Public Prosecutor (Cross-country Comparison)	49
	4. The Number of People per Legal Professional (Cross-country Comparison)	50

Chapter 2 Populations of Other Legal Professions　…　53

I.	Changes in Populations of Other Legal Professions		53

Chapter 3 Mergers of Law Offices and the Current Situation of Legal Professional Corporations　…　54

I.	The Number of Attorneys in Law Offices	54
II.	Current Situation of Legal Professional Corporations	55
	1. The Number of LPCs	55
	2. Size of Legal Professional Corporations	56

Chapter 4 Current Situation of Gaikokuho-Jimu-Bengoshi ("Registered Foreign Lawyers")　…　57

I.	Changes in the Number of Gaikokuho-Jimu-Bengoshi (1988-2012)	57
II.	Registration of Gaikokuho-Jimu-Bengoshi (Registered Foreign Lawyers)	58
III.	Foreign Law Joint Enterprises	59
IV.	The Number of Foreign Lawyers Employed by Attorneys and Legal Professional Corporations	61
	1. By Nationality	61
	2. By Home Jurisdiction	62
V.	World Law Firms and Their Entry into the Japanese Market	63

Part 2
Activities of Attorneys

Chapter 1 Criminal Advocacy Activities　…　64

Section 1.　Duty Attorney System and Court-Appointed Attorney Systems		64
I.	Outline of Duty Attorney System and Court-Appointed Attorney Systems	64
II.	Current Situations of Duty Attorneys (Toban Bengoshi)	65
III.	Changes in the Number of Duty Attorney Requested Cases, Appointed Cass and Criminal Suspect Defense Aid Cases	66
Section 2.　The Status of Defense Attorneys Involvement in the Overall Criminal Cases		67
I.	Court-Appointed Attorney System, Court-Appointed Attorney Contracts, and the Number of Defendants with Court-Appointed Attorneys	67
II.	Changes in the Percentage of Retaining Criminal Defense Counsel (after Indictment) (Court-Appointed and Privately Retained) at District Courts	68
III.	Changes in the Percentage of Retaining Criminal Defense Counsel (after Indictment) (Court-Appointed and Privately Retained) at Summary Courts	68
IV.	Changes in the Percentage of Defendants Retaining Criminal Defense Counsel (after Indictment) (Court-Appointed and Privately Retained) at High Courts	69
Section 3.　Defense Activities in Juvenile Cases		70
I.	The Number of Juvenile Probation Cases (at Family Courts) and the Proportion of Presence of Attendants	70
II.	Changes in the Number of Juvenile Probation Cases (at Family Courts) with Appointed Attendants (by type)	71
Section 4.　The Lay Judge System		72
I.	Cases Determined by Lay Judges	72
II.	Actual Practice of Lay Judge Trials	74
	1. The Number of Persons Whose Trials Have Been Tried by Judges Including Lay Judges and Have Been Finalized	74
	2. The Number of Persons Whose Trials Have Been Finalized per the Actual Period Taken for Court Deliberations	75

Chapter 2 Representation in Civil and Other Lawsuits　…　77

Section 1.　Civil Lawsuits		77
I.	Attorneys’ Involvement in Ordinary Civil Lawsuits before District Courts	77
II.	Changes in the Percentage of Appointed Attorneys in Ordinary Second Instances (before High Courts)	78
III.	Percentage of Attorneys’ Involvement in Ordinary Civil Lawsuits before Summary Courts	79

Chapter 3 Expansion of Attorneys’ Activities 　…　80

I.	Current Situation of In-house Attorneys	80
	1. Changes in the Number of In-house Attorneys	80
	2. Public Officers with Fixed Terms	81
	3. Diet Member and Head of Local Governments Registered as Attorneys	81

Part 3
Activities of the JFBA and Local Bar Associations

Chapter 1 Autonomy of Attorneys　…　82

Section 1.　Complaints and Dispute Conciliations		82
I.	Complaints against Attorneys	82
II.	Dispute Conciliation	83
	1. Number of Dispute Conciliation Cases Newly Received	83
	2. Handling of Dispute Conciliation Cases (All Bar Associations) – 2002 to 2011 –	83
Section 2.　Disciplinary System for Attorneys		84
I.	Summary of the Disciplinary System for Attorneys	84
	1. Request for Discipline	84
	2. Investigation by Disciplinary Enforcement Committee	84
	3. Examination by Disciplinary Actions Committee	84
	4. Filing of an Objection, etc.	85
	5. Public Notice by the Official Gazette, etc.	85
II.	Operation of the Disciplinary System	86
	1. Cases Handled by Disciplinary Enforcement Committees of Bar Associations and the JFBA	86
	(1)　Bar Associations	86
	(2) 　JFBA	86
	2. Processing Cases at Disciplinary Actions Committees of Bar Associations and the JFBA	87
	(1)　Bar Associations	87
	(2) 　JFBA	87
	i.　Objections	87
	ii.　Appeals	87
	3. Processing Cases at the JFBA Board of Discipline Review	88
Section 3.　Disciplinary Actions and Disciplinary Procedure		89
I.	Statistics Regarding Disciplinary Actions	89
	1. Changes in the Number of Newly Accepted Requests for Disciplinary Actions (All Bar Associations) –1995 to 2011-	89
	2. Number of Requests for Disciplinary Action and Details of Handling the Requests (All Bar Associations)	90
	3. Percentage of Disciplinary Actions (All Bar Associations)	91
	(1) 　Percentage of Cases with Disciplinary Actions out of All Requests for Disciplinary Actions	91
	(2) 　Changes in Percentage of Members with Disciplinary Actions	91
II.	The Flow and Current Situation of Disciplinary Procedure	92
	1. The Disciplinary System	92

Chapter 2 The JFBA's Activities involving Human Rights Relief　…　94

I.	Appeal System Procedures for Human Rights Relief		94
II.	The Number of Human Rights Relief Cases (by Category)		96

Chapter 3 International Activities of the JFBA　…　97

Section 1.　International Human Rights Activities		98
I.	Activities at the United Nations (UN)	98
II.	Activities Related to the UN and UN Human Rights Bodies	98
Section 2.　International Exchange Activities		99
I.	Membership of International Organizations	99
II.	MOUs with Overseas Bar Organizations	99
Section 3.　 International Cooperation		100
I.	JICA Long-Term Experts	100
II.	Past and Current JFBA Assistance Projects for Bar Associations in Developing Countries (by Country)	102
Section 4.　Overseas Visiting Fellow Program and Support for Working in International Organizations		104
I.	JFBA Overseas Visiting Fellow Program	104
II.	Support for JFBA Members Interested in Working in International Organizations	106
III.	Other Support	106

White Paper on Attorneys 2012

Contents