Paper short abstract:

In the Heisei era, under the deregulation, the attention was paid to the individual persons for the better or worse in the lawmaking. This paper considers a gap between these new laws under the long-standing LDP coalition government and the new judicial system which was reformed at the same time.

Paper long abstract:

This paper considers the feature of Japanese legal system in the Heisei era. After the economic bubble burst in the early 1990s, in the deregulation, depression and depopulation, various reforms, including political reform, administrative reform, promotion of decentralization, and reforms of the economic structure such as deregulation were promoted. What commonly underlies reforms is the will that each and every person will become a governing subject, with autonomy and bearing social responsibility.

Quite a few laws were made or revised in response to the social, economic, political and international movements in the Heisei era. The attention was paid to the individual persons in the private sphere, which realized the legislations of child abuse and domestic violence prevention. Japan experienced disasters and terrorism, which were partly responded by laws to protect sufferers and criminal victims. On the other hand, the laws on non-regular employment, tax and social security widened the gap between the rich and the poor. Citizens' anxiety led to the severe punishment of criminals, which was supported by the police and prosecution office in the 2000s.

At the sama time, judicial system was improved in terms of the justice system, the legal profession and the popular base. The population of lawyers has almost trebled (from 13,541 to 41,178) and their spheres of activity have enlarged in the Heisei era. The court and its decisions seem to have been partly changed with the introduction of the mixed court (saiban-in) system.

It seems that there is a gap between the laws under the long-standing LDP coalition government. and the reformed judicial system in the Heisei era. The legalization seems to be on going with increasing lawyers, however, the steamrolling of the draft law, such as introduction of the 2015 security legislation, and the noncompliance or evasion of law are rampant under the long-standing LDP coalition government. Japanese "hostage justice" and the state of human rights has been criticized.

This paper concludes that the feature of Japanese legal system in the Heisei era can be seen in the curious mixture of relatively responsible lawyers and citizens and the quasi-authoritarian regime.