Article 1 of Japan’s Civil Conciliation Act of 1951 states its purpose: to resolve civil disputes through mutual concession by the parties, in a way that is reasonable and fits the actual circumstances.
Settled in Court
In Japan, many civil lawsuits end in a settlement, wakai, instead of a judgment. A report of the Japanese courts on cases in 2018 found that 37.1 percent of first-instance civil cases ended in settlement and 41.4 percent in a judgment.
The Legal Consciousness of the Japanese
In 1967, the legal scholar Kawashima Takeyoshi published Nihonjin no hō-ishiki (The Legal Consciousness of the Japanese). He argued that the Japanese lacked a sense of rights. Since the Edo period, lawsuits had often ended not in a judgment but in a settlement between the parties. A dispute was best settled “roundly,” in a way that did not destroy the community relationship.
The book became the starting point of postwar research on legal consciousness. Later scholars have disputed much of it.
The Myth of the Reluctant Litigant
In 1978, the American legal scholar John O. Haley published “The Myth of the Reluctant Litigant.” He argued that cultural explanations for the small number of lawsuits in Japan were overblown.
In his view, the reason was the limited capacity of the legal system. Japan had relatively few lawyers per person, and few judges, with high caseloads and long delays.
Village Ostracism
Mura hachibu is the general term for the sanctions carried out in Japanese village society.
A popular explanation says that the word means cutting off eight of the ten kinds of social contact between households, all except fires and funerals. A Japanese encyclopedia notes that this explanation is widespread but has no basis.
Two Dishonored Bills
In Japan, when a company’s promissory bill is dishonored for the second time within six months of the first, the clearing house suspends its transactions. For two years from that day, the banks in the clearing house may not do business with it.
Barred from Public Contracts
Japanese public agencies can suspend a contractor from nomination for public contracts, a shimei teishi. One ground in the rules of a research institute of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is dishonest or unfaithful conduct in business, which makes the company unsuitable as a contract partner.
The suspension lasts from one to nine months. In one case in 2024, it ran for four months.
Settling Quietly
Naisai means settling a dispute without making it public, especially a settlement in the Edo period. A naisai approved by the court had the effect of a judgment.
A Damaged Shop Curtain
Noren ni kizu ga tsuku (暖簾に傷がつく): the shop curtain is damaged. The noren is the cloth curtain at a shop’s entrance. The word also means the credit and standing of the shop, built up over many years of business. A damaged noren means that the shop’s credit has been harmed.