Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

"Japan is not a country with the rule of law." If made by me, this statement might come across as the ravings of a disgruntled foreign academic. Coming as it does from a former Japanese prosecutor (and member of the elite Tokyo special prosecutor's office at that), it is worthy of some attention. As its title suggests, Nobuo Gohara's book "Legal Compliance will Destroy Japan" is critical of his country's newfound yet often mindless zeal for compliance.' Because so many Japanese laws are imposed from on high by faceless bureaucrats, they tend to be divorced from the social and economic realities of the people required to obey them. This creates an environment in which some laws are out of necessity widely (if not openly) ignored, while at the same time others are followed slavishly with no regard for their underlying purpose. As an example of the latter mentality, Gohara cites the tragic train derailment in April 2005 Amagazaki in Western Japan.' One hundred and seven passengers died in this accident, yet family members desperately calling hospitals for news of their loved ones were rebuffed on the grounds that personal information about patients could not be disclosed due to the recently-enacted Personal Information Protection Law, which had only just come into force.

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