Stiff wind for J-lawyers

[thomas]

Japanese lawyers scramble to protect their walled garden from outsiders

[...] Instead, what Japan has is a pitiful number of lawyers, most of whom work solely as litigators, and a legal market so strictly regulated that foreign lawyers have to jump through hoops to get a piece of the action.

"The problem is that there aren't enough Japanese lawyers to do Japanese law work,'' says Jeffrey Shimamoto, president of the Roppongi Bar Association, a Tokyo-based legal networking organization.

"For that reason, foreign lawyers usually come to this country to pick up as much slack as they can because it's just too much work for those lawyers to do. With the restrictions on foreign lawyers practicing in Japan, it just makes it more difficult for any legal work to get done in general.''

=> http://www.asahi.com/english/nationa...122300120.html

[thomas]

More news on the topic:

Foreign firms given green light to offer local advice in Japan

Foreign firms in Japan are set to be allowed to form single partnerships with local lawyers in a major step towards the liberalisation of the country痴 legal services. [...]

Until now foreign law firms have only been able to offer Japanese law through highly-restricted joint ventures with local lawyers, a regime that is believed to have held back foreign firms in Japan.

=> http://www.lwk.co.uk/ViewItem.asp?id=12066

Related:

A Yokohama Neighborhood's Battle to Cut Through Red Tape

An American layer and his neighbors fight to keep retail store from moving in next door.

=> http://www.japaninc.com/article.php?articleID=896

[lineartube]

We have an excess of lawyers and recent-graduates around here. Can we put them on a boat and ship them to Japan?

As long as they don't come back...

[thomas]

Please make me one of them, lol.