Law and Society in Japan is a welcome addition to Japan’s progressive and critical socio-legal scholarship, whose history began more than 80 years ago. The Japanese Association of the Sociology of Law (JASL) was established in 1947, nearly two decades before the US Law and Society Association (LSA) was established in 1964. Even earlier than that, the Research Committee on Sociology of Law (RCSL) under the International Sociological Association, largely headquartered in Europe, was created in 1962. Its founding was a direct reaction against the pre-war state-controlled bureaucracy that had dominated the university and intellectual world. Setsuo Miyazawa and Hiroshi Otsuka’s significant research critiques the long-standing and overbearing influence of Tokyo Imperial University and its law graduates over the economic, judicial, and political arenas, including the intellectual world, ever since Japan’s modernization in the late 19th century.

The JASL was forged as an independent academic “forum for discussion” to “advance democracy” and “overcome” pre-war intellectual subservience to state power (Miyazawa and Otsuka, Reference Miyazawa, Otsuka, Dezalay and Garth2002, pp. 162–201). One of the JASL’s driving forces was Takeyoshi Kawashima, who, as a law graduate of Tokyo Imperial University, secretly studied the prerequisites of civil society even during the war. Kawashima and his fellow founders, having engaged in deep introspection concerning the pre-war government suppression, dedicated their mission to serving civil society, not the imperial state.Footnote ¹ The conditions leading to the JASL existed long before Japan’s devastating loss in WWII.Footnote ² Under GHQ’s supervision, JASL featured discussions of interregnum scholarship in socialism and Marxism, which had been shunned before the war’s end, and began to support a new democratic Japan through the field of law.

Given this long tradition of Japan’s critical socio-legal scholarship, Law and Society in Japan does a valuable service in decisively filling in certain gaps. This collaborative volume brings together an impressive array of academics to offer an accessible, English language primer on Japan’s legal system from socio-legal perspectives. Designed as a beginner-friendly textbook, yet rich with historical, analytical insights, this volume features both Japanese and international scholars who offer diverse expertise, ensuring both breadth and depth. Each chapter provides a summary of key concepts and discussions to be developed, thereby encouraging readers to make critical comparisons with their own state policies and respective legal codes, and to observe the differences that may manifest as socio-legal inequities and questions are further explored.Footnote ³

The chapters generally fall into four major thematic clusters: (1) historical and constitutional foundations (Chapters 1 and 2); (2) substantive law (Chapters 3–5); (3) legal institutions and dispute resolution (Chapters 6–10); and (4) cross-cutting socio-legal critique, including perspectives on gender and international gender equity standards (Chapter 11). Chapter 1 provides a historical overview of Japan’s legal evolution, primarily focused on land ownership, labour, and political governance from pre-modern Chinese legal influence, village autonomy, and feudal systems, to the Meiji era legal adoption of Euro-American influence on the state’s land governance, reforms, and their impact on socio-industrial modernization. Chapter 2 examines Japan’s constitutional rights and judicial review, established under the 1947 post-war constitution, highlighting the gap between broad textual guarantees and Japan’s restrained judicial practice and reality, a theme that resonates throughout the volume.

Expanding on the substantive law of Japan, Chapter 3 analyses civil law and property rights, explaining the German-inspired Civil Code’s structure, property regimes, contract law, and tort liabilities. It also addresses distinctive Japanese applications in areas of labour and means of production, such as tenant farming rights and rights of common (iriai) as sources of contentious issues and litigations regarding preserving the collective rights of common. The author argues that corporate efforts to privatize continue today. Chapter 4 covers family law, i.e., the fourth and fifth parts of Japan’s Civil Code, including marriage, divorce, parent–child relationships, and inheritance. Tracing the historical evolution from Meiji to the post-war era, the chapter examines the adaptations of family law to changing social norms and circumstances. Chapter 5 analyses labour law, focusing on the distinct features of Japan’s employment relations, such as lifetime employment, seniority-based wages, and enterprise-specific unions. The chapter also examines the interplay between legal rules and social practices, such as job security and employer flexibility or “flexicurity” to maintain the resilience of lifetime employment despite economic change and labour market diversification.Footnote ⁴

In relation to Japan’s legal institutions and dispute resolution, Chapter 6 examines the legal profession, including judges, prosecutors, and attorneys, addressing professional ethics, access to justice, and persistent gender disparities. Administrative law is explored in Chapter 7, including administrative guidance (gyōsei shidō) and judicial review of administrative action. Chapter 8 addresses the criminal justice process, emphasizing Japan’s high conviction rate, the centrality of confessions, and pretrial detention, as resulting in wrongful convictions. Considering their historical contexts from pre-war eras to the present, the chapter analyses Saiban-in trials (mixed tribunals of both professional and lay judges), which allow lay adjudication and feature other contemporary reforms, and provides international comparisons and critiques. Chapter 9 covers civil dispute resolution, examining litigation, arbitration, mediation, and conciliation (chōtei), and the reasons behind Japan’s low litigation rates. Chapter 10 addresses family dispute resolution, complementing Chapter 4’s theme of family law by focusing on family courts and alternative mechanisms.

Chapter 11, by Kyoko Ishida, a leading editor of this volume, takes a gender perspective, using empirical data to expose persistent inequality in Japanese society and the legal profession, despite formal legal reforms such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, adopted by the UN in 1979 and ratified by Japan in 1985. This critical chapter serves as both an introduction to gender and law and an approach to revisiting limitations of formal legal equality in Japan. Ishida also provides an Appendix that offers practical guidance for researchers and practitioners on finding Japanese legal materials, followed by a comprehensive Index. Despite the diversity of topics, each chapter shares a common methodological commitment to the socio-legal perspective announced in the volume’s title, carefully situating legal rules and socio-legal themes within larger social, historical, and institutional contexts. This approach reflects the editor’s own scholarly orientation and methodological rigor; Ishida has conducted numerous empirical studies on social issues in Japanese society, including professional ethics, access to justice, and gender disparity (Ishida, Reference Ishida2025a; Ishida, Reference Ishida, Deflem, Takahashi, Vanoverbeke and Karlin2025b).

The volume’s greatest strength lies in its successful presentation of both historical and contemporary Japanese legal scholarship in an accessible English language reader. The collaborative authorship, drawing on diverse institutional affiliations and expertise, also ensures broad coverage as well as insider perspectives. The socio-legal framing enriches doctrinal exposition by showing how law operates in practice, essential for anyone engaging seriously with the topic of Japan. The inclusion of a dedicated gender chapter is particularly commendable, foregrounding an issue often marginalized in legal introductions.

Law and Society in Japan is a significant contribution to the English language literature on Japanese law and legal institutions. By bringing together leading Japanese and international scholars from Japan’s socio-legal landscape, Ishida has produced a volume that is both easily accessible and analytically sophisticated. Organized around the themes of history, substantive law, institutions, and broader socio-political themes, including land rights, property, labour, socio-cultural norms and authority, lay adjudication, and gender, the book’s 11 chapters provide a comprehensive and critical examination of contemporary legal issues. Despite the breadth of topics, the volume maintains coherence through its shared theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, and commitment to critical socio-legal inquiry.

This valuable book is an excellent resource for both Japanese and international students, researchers, and professionals seeking an accessible introduction to Japan’s critical law and society tradition, whose intellectual roots long pre-date the establishment of LSA and RCSL. Drawing upon Japan’s rich socio-legal heritage, including pre-war efforts to develop critical approaches to law and society, Ishida’s perspective encourages readers to consider not only what the law is, but also what it ought to be, and how it should function within a democratic society. In so doing, the book sets a new standard for accessible, yet theoretically sophisticated scholarship in the field. Both timely and welcome, this volume demonstrates the vitality of Japan’s socio-legal scholarship and its capacity to engage meaningfully with scholars across Asia and around the globe. It offers a compelling model for future theoretical, empirical, and practice-oriented research, while fostering the critical and collaborative dialogue essential for the continued development of socio-legal studies.