The Americanization of Japanese Law
![handle is hein.journals/upjiel23 and id is 281 raw text is: THE AMERICANIZATION OF JAPANESE LAW*
R. DANIEL KELEMEN** & ERIC C. SIBBT1***
1. INTRODUCTION
The literature on comparative law and public policy has long
portrayed the United States and Japan as having contrasting legal
styles. U.S. legal style, which Robert Kagan has labeled as adver-
sarial legalism, is characterized by complex rules, formal and ad-
versarial procedures for resolving disputes, costly legal contesta-
tion involving many lawyers and frequent judicial intervention in
administrative affairs.' Japanese legal style, by contrast, has been
* The Authors thank Kenneth Abbott, Ward Bower, Kent Calder, Robert G.
DeLaMater, Tom Ginsburg, Jack Goldsmith, Milton Heumann, Mark D. Hun-
saker, Robert Kagan, Susan Lawrence, Kathleen McNamara, Michael Paris, J.
Mark Ramseyer, Amy Searight, Tatsushi Terada, David Vogel, Albert Yoon and
participants in presentations at the 2001 International Studies Association Con-
vention, the 2001 American Political Science Association Convention, Northwest-
em University's Center for International and Comparative Studies and the Uni-
versity of Chicago Law School for their comments on earlier versions of the paper.
The Authors thank Rachael Snyder, Fatima Khan, Hisako Yamamoto, Masako
Ishiwata and Kei Yamaguchi for their research assistance and Akiko Tsuda,
Akemi Ideuchi and Mio Kato for secretarial assistance. Kelemen thanks the Frank
KneUer Fund at Rutgers University and the Center of International Studies at
Princeton University for financial support. Views expressed in this Article are
those of the Authors and not necessarily those of any institutions with which they
are associated.
** Assistant Professor, Rutgers University, Department of Political Science;
Visiting Fellow, Princeton University, Center of International Studies; Ph.D. Stan-
ford University; A.B. University of California, Berkeley. Rkelemen@rci.rutgers.
edu.
. Associate, Sullivan & Cromwell, Tokyo Office; LL.M. Kyushu University;
J.D. Harvard Law School; A.B. University of California, Berkeley.
sibbitte@sullcrom.com.
I See Robert A. Kagan & Lee Axelrad, Adversarial Legalism: An International
Perspective, in COMPARATIVE DISADVANTAGES?: SOCIAL REGULATIONS AND THE
GLOBAL ECONOMY 146 (Pietro S. Nivola ed., 1997) (reviewing comparative studies
of United States legal/regulatory style); Robert A. Kagan, Adversarial Legalism and
American Government, 10 J. POL'Y ANALYSIS & MGmT 369, 371 (1991); Robert A. Ka-
gan, American Lawyers, Legal Culture, and Adversarial Legalism, in LEGAL CULTURE &
THE LEGAL PROFESSION 7, 8-11 (Lawrence M. Friedman & Harry N. Scheiber eds.,
1996) [hereinafter Kagan, American Lawyers] (discussing how the American legal](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/upjiel23&div=17&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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