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Steele, Stacey; Petridis, Anesti --- "Japanese legal education reform: A lost opportunity to end the cult(ure) of the national bar examination and internationalise curricula?" [2014] ELECD 700; in van Caenegem, William; Hiscock, Mary (eds), "The Internationalisation of Legal Education" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014) 92

Book Title: The Internationalisation of Legal Education

Editor(s): van Caenegem, William; Hiscock, Mary

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783474530

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Japanese legal education reform: A lost opportunity to end the cult(ure) of the national bar examination and internationalise curricula?

Author(s): Steele, Stacey; Petridis, Anesti

Number of pages: 30

Abstract/Description:

This chapter highlights recent developments in Japan after substantial reforms to legal education in 2004. We argue that the national philosophy of legal education in Japan, to the extent that one exists, is dictated by the national bar examination. The reforms demonstrate that legal education, including its content, delivery and purpose, is a contested issue in Japan. The reforms failed to bring about meaningful change to the examination, and it continues to be a major obstacle to internationalising curricula in law schools and preparing students for an internationalised legal market, even though so-called internationalisation (kokusai-ka) was a key recommendation of the Justice System Reform Council’s blueprint for legal education in the twenty-first century, which ultimately led to the reforms. Japan is not alone in its recent reassessment of legal education content and offerings. Kift, an Australian academic specialising in legal education in Australia, notes that jurisdictions such as the US, England, Australia, Scotland, Canada and Hong Kong have been through periods of retrospection and reform, and most ‘have exhorted a reorientation of the traditional approaches to legal education, essentially from a content focus and towards skills and values acquisition and training’.