Practice of Arbitral Institutions in Japan

Abstract

the number of cases referred to arbitration in Japan is quite small. Ad hoc arbitration is rare and most of the cases have been handled by two institutions, the Japan Commercial Arbitration Association (JCAA) and the Japan Shipping Exchange (JSE). The purpose of this paper is to describe the achievements and practice of these institutions, with some observations of the present writer. Professor Koyama stated in the preface to his treatise on arbitration law that he attempted to write a book furnishing current information on arbitration rather than a scholarly piece of work.1 Similarly, though on a much smaller scale, this article will attempt mainly to present pictures, as it were, of international commercial arbitration conducted in Japan. Although occasional references will be made to the arbitration law contained in the Code of Civil Procedure, this article will not deal with various problems of that law, which perhaps would require separate treatment. One may question why maritime arbitration, which is often regarded as something different from general commercial arbitration, is discussed along with commercial arbitration. Maritime arbitration is, however, a kind of commercial arbitration. The UNCITRAL model arbitration law, in which it has been cosen to give a wide interpretation to the term ‘commercial’, lists carriage of goods by sea as an example of commercial arbitration.2 Further, this paper on international arbitration cannot disregard the work of the JSE, since more than half of the JSE arbitration cases are international. ### History The Trade Association Law of 1948, while forbidding arbitration of domestic disputes by associations, did permit associations to conduct international arbitraton.3 In the same year, when foreign trade on a private-to-private base was not yet permitted by the Occupation authorities, the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry decided to create a body capable of administering international arbitration …