With several minor exceptions,
attorneys at law are required to pass a national bar examination followed by
one year of internship, supervised by the Legal Research and Training Institute
of the Supreme Court of Japan.
Before 2006, the bar examination
consisted of three stages. The first stage, held in May, consisted of 60
multiple choice questions regarding constitutional law, civil law and criminal
law. The second stage, held over two days in July, consisted of twelve essay
questions regarding constitutional law, civil law, criminal law, commercial
law, civil procedure law and criminal procedure law. The final stage, held in
October, was an oral examination regarding constitutional law, civil law,
criminal law, civil procedure law and criminal procedure law. Final results
were published in mid-November. On average, 40,000 to 50,000 people took the
first stage, 7,000 to 8,000 qualified for the second stage, and only 1,500
qualified for the oral examination each year.
In 2006, a new bar examination was
instituted with only two stages. The first stage is a one-day short-answer
examination concerning the six laws as well as administrative law. The second
stage is a three-day essay examination concerning public law, civil law and
criminal law, as well as subjects that can be selected by the examinee
(including labor law, environmental law, public international law, and private
international law). In addition, a law school requirement was introduced. All
bar examination participants must complete a two or three-year graduate law
program, and are limited to taking the examination within five years after
graduation.
Those who have not graduated from law
school may take the bar examination after passing a preliminary qualifying
examination("Yobi-Shiken"). But passing a preliminary exam is still a
minor path and most people are from law school. Japanese Bar exam is known as one of
the most difficult exams in the world. Although the bar pass rates are getting
higher after the structural reform in 2006, only around 20% of the law school
graduates pass the bar. Therefore the top law schools in Japan are competing
with each other by achieving higher bar pass rate.
In
addition to passing bar examinations, an attorney must also be a member of the
bar association for the prefecture where the law office is located. According
to a 2008 survey by the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA), 39.4%
of all lawyers belong to the three Tokyo bar associations (Tokyo Bar
Association, First Tokyo Bar Association, and Second Tokyo Bar Association).
Before World War II,
attorneys qualified in foreign countries could join a Japanese bar with special
permission from the Supreme Court. These individuals were referred to as
quasi-members of the bar. None remain in practice today. The quasi-membership was
abolished by judicial reforms in 1955,
and was replaced by the attorney at foreign law membership in 1986. There are
384 attorneys at foreign law in Japan as of August 2014.
Attorneys in Okinawa who
had been admitted as U.S. attorneys before the repatriation in 1972 were
admitted as Japanese attorneys. They are classified by the Japanese Federation
of Bar Associations (JFBA) as "Special members in Okinawa", and nine
of them are still in practice as of August 2014.
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