It wasn't long ago that the law was a lonely profession in Japan, though the number of attorneys may have only seemed small in comparison with the United States, where litigation is practically a spectator sport. Apparently, that's no longer the case, according to a recent article in Tokyo Shimbun, which says that there is a glut of lawyers in the major cities. Consequently, many are branching out to smaller cities and even the countryside to find clients. The article profiles one young attorney who opened an office in Tokyo two years ago and has had scant business ever since, so in the past year he has held seven free sodankai (consulting sessions) in Hokkaido — six in Sapporo and one in Obihiro. The Hokkaido Bar Association says that such sessions are a burgeoning trend that started three years ago.
According to a government white paper on the legal profession, there are now 15,000 lawyers practicing in Tokyo, a 70 percent increase over the last ten years. And if you include the surrounding prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba, the number practicing in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area tops 32,000, which is more than half of all the lawyers in Japan.
The profession received a much needed boost in 2006 when the Consumer Credit Law was revised with regard to "gray area" rates (kinri) and consumer credit companies were forced to refund ¥1.6 trillion in overcharged interest. About 70 percent of the customers eligible for the refunds hired lawyers and notaries to the tune of ¥40 billion, and somewhere between 20 and 30 percent of all the lawyers in Japan have so far benefited from this windfall.