Even as the pace of change in recent years has brought Japanese law to a "turning point," the "confession-centric" system of criminal justice risks a breakdown over the investigations of white-collar and organized crime.
That observation comes from an American sociologist, one of 35 contributors — half of whom are Japanese legal scholars — to this volume of papers on the major developments in Japanese law from 1961 to the 2002 Seattle, Washington, conference where the papers were originally presented.
University of Tokyo law professor Daniel H. Foote has compiled, updated and, in some cases, translated a comprehensive backstage tour of the trendsetting civil and criminal litigation waged during this period as well as the public, legislative and bureaucratic reactions to it — from Minamata mercury poisoning to more recent medical errors and labor practices.