Women and the new legal training system in Japan

Abstract

In Japan, as a part of justice system reform, we are now developping a new legal training system to foster a Japanese legal profession rich in both quality and quantity. The core of the new system is the establishment of professional law schools that provide education espacially to train legal professionals. Conventionnally, the percentage of women in the Japanese legal profession has been quite low compared to other countries. Can the law school system, with emphasis on diversity, increase the number of female lawyers? In this paper, I overview the status of Japanese women in general. I than present data on women under the conventional legal training system as well as data under the new system. Futhermore, I analyze factors that stunt the growth of women in the legal profession and academia. Finally, I suggest measures to increase the number of women lawyers and gender-sensitive lawyers.