ABSTRACT
In the past, two legal systems existed in Japan, the first consisted of ordinances under the government of the Emperors in ancient times (Nara, Heian Periods: 710-1183), and the other consisted of several rules and regulations under the feudal lords of the Middle Ages (1192-1868). Both systems were abandoned when democratic ideas prevailed after 1868. The first modern legal system of Japan based on the European model originated in the Meiji era through the Restoration of 1868 after the closing days of the Tokugawa Shogunate government (1603-1868). The Meiji Restoration was a great revolution in Japan that resulted in the modernization of society and industry through the restoration of Imperial rule. In this régime a framework of the first modern law system in Japan was established based on the following five pillars of law: the Imperial Constitution of Japan (1889), the Civil Law (1896), the Commercial Law (1899), the Civil Proceedings Act (1890), and the Criminal Law (1907).
