Current perspectives, analyses, and reports in the latest issue of the Journal of Japanese Law
Published by the Institute in partnership with the German-Japanese Association of Jurists, the Zeitschrift für Japanisches Recht/Journal of Japanese Law (ZJapanR/J.Japan.L.) documents and analyses the myriad lines of development of Japanese law. Consistent with the Journal’s editorial concept, all areas of Japanese law are covered. The German and English contributions making up the latest issue address a number of current topics and also include a legal history analysis.
Many of the individuals who were forced to leave their homes because of the radioactive contamination emitted from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident are still unable to return. Mina Wakabayashi analyses the current status of arbitration and court proceedings in light of amendments made to the 2011 interim guidelines that were drawn up by the Dispute Reconciliation Committee for Nuclear Damage Compensation.
Standing to sue in Japanese climate lawsuits is the focus of an article written by Yaoyao Chen. Using the Yokosuka case as an example, the author questions the restrictive interpretation that the Tokyo District Court and the Tokyo High Court gave to the notion of standing to sue. Additionally, she examines the Tokyo District Court's approach for determining just who is a “core beneficiary” and thus has standing to sue.
In an article focused on legal policy, Greta Schießl uses sources from history, law, and sociology to reconstruct how the Prostitution Prevention Act (PPA) of 1956 reinforced the stigmatization of prostitutes, shielded customers, and facilitated organized crime. Against the backdrop of the reform of the PPA, the author argues for a coherent, rights-oriented regulatory scheme that ensures both the protection and destigmatization of prostitutes.
An article by Maj Hartmann explores the mostly overlooked role of civil society – particularly as regards children’s privacy rights – in Japan’s data protection movement from the 1970s to the 1990s, linking this history to current reforms.
The contribution of Jan Felix von Alten and Sven Plata considers the legal history of German consular jurisdiction in Japan. Such jurisdiction began in 1861 with the conclusion of the Prussian-Japanese Friendship, Trade, and Navigation Treaty and ended with the German-Japanese Treaty of 1896. The consular courts, initially controlled by Prussia and later by the German Empire, were primarily called upon to rule on commercial disputes between subjects of the Western powers. Although the establishment of consular jurisdiction in itself represented an undeniable disadvantage for Japanese plaintiffs in their own country, the authors show that there is no evidence of discrimination against Japanese plaintiffs at least in the proceedings in individual cases before the consular courts.
Additionally, the new issue of the Journal contains a review (by Helmut Satzger) of Makoto Ida's work on the death penalty in Japan, which was recently published in German in a ZJapanR special issue, as well as a series of reports on academic events held in Germany and Japan in 2025 on various areas of Japanese law.
Image: © Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
