Japanese businesses might operate on a global scale, but foreign firms often run into a wall — the language barrier — when trying to understand the ins and outs of this nation's legal system.
Foreign enterprises and governments alike have often found it difficult to understand Japan's legal system because of the overall dearth of translated legal texts. This language barrier and foreign firms' inaccessibility to the rules have been blamed for hampering investment in Japan.
The government is trying to rectify this problem. To enhance transparency of the legal system and boost the confidence of the international community, the Justice Ministry on April 1 launched the Web site Japanese Law Translation.