Japan continues to possess the second largest economy in the world. In Asia, for the time being at least, the country occupies an economically unambiguous pre-eminence that is once again increasingly seen at the political level as well. The long-standing significance of Japan and, implicitly, of its legal system is doubtless. Moreover, comparative law research in respect of Japan possesses a unique appeal since a multi-layered history of legal transfers has resulted in a mosaic of legal concepts that, although drawn from various legal systems, have in turn been embedded into the Japanese legal tradition and legal mindset.

The early history of legal development in Japan reveals religiously grounded law whose origins extend to the early cultures of the South Pacific. Already at this early phase, namely in the first centuries of the Common Era, a series of characteristic and still visible elements of Japanese legal conception emerge. Around the end of the 6th century, a comprehensive transfer of Chinese law and Chinese state structures is instituted that spans over the 7th and 8th century. The substantial cultural differences between Japan and China lead to a significant assimilation of Confucian notions of order into the Japanese reality. A second substantial wave of legal transfer, European law in this instance, begins following the watershed of the Meiji Restoration of 1868. This leads to an opening of the country and a systematic adoption of Western institutions and represents a historic turning point in the development of Japan. In an unparalleled cultural achievement, within merely three decades Japan is able to construct a modern, functioning legal and justice system after, primarily, the German model, but also after the French and other European legal systems. As a result of the so-called democratization of the Japanese economy carried out by occupying allied forces, a third significant legal transfer occurs following the Second World War, one which is tightly oriented upon US law. Alongside constitutional law, economic law is found at the center of this transfer. The newly absorbed institutions are superimposed on those previously adopted from Europe.

It is from these varied developmental strands that Japanese law has synthesized into a unique legal system of its own that cannot be directly assigned to any of the traditional legal traditions and which, thus, holds great comparative law interest (Comparison of Law with Japan). This is all the more true since the decades-long successful Japanese economic and regulatory model finds itself at a paradigmatic watershed as it attempts to take into account the 21st century demands of a global economy reality. The experiences of Japan in this regard represent a valuable opportunity for learning for the German observer (Research Focus in Japanese Law).

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