ABSTRACT
Any serious discussion of the relationship of law to economic and political development requires some tentative identification of law-related features shared historically by most if not all advanced industrial democracies. Japan’s relevance in this endeavor requires little explanation. Japan was the first and the most successful independent state to restructure its legal system based on Western law.1 It was also the first and most successful non-Western industrial democracy.Aside from the decade of ultra-nationalism and war from the early 1930s to the end of World War II, few can reasonably question Japan’s record as a prosperous, politically stable, and institutionally advanced state. Unless law’s contribution to development is to be treated as a uniquely Western phenomenon, the question to be answered is what if any aspects of law and legal processes does Japan historically share with its industrial democratic peers.
