Strengthening Clinical Legal Education in Japan: What Should Be Done in the Second Stage of the Law School System?

Abstract

Clinical legal education started in Japan together with the introduction of the law school system in 2004. This is an experiential pedagogy to “bridge theory and practice” at law schools throughout Japan. It became a prevalent teaching method to integrate knowledge in law, skills to practice law, and professional responsibility in the first stage of the law school system. As the law school system faced vexing difficulties, two important changes were made in law school system in 2020. One is the introduction of the “3+2” program in the legal education process, namely, making it possible to graduate from the undergraduate law program in three years instead of four and to finish the professional law school in two years instead of three. The other change is to make law students eligible to take the national bar examination before their law school graduation. With these two changes, the law school system entered the second stage. Clinical legal education needs to adapt to these changes. This author proposes three approaches to the “3+2” program: First is early exposure of undergraduate law students to law practice. Second is the incorporation of clinical components in fundamental law courses in the undergraduate law curriculum. And third is the intensive use of legal clinic courses in the final term of the law school curriculum after the bar examination. Legal clinics occupy an essential locus in Japanese legal education to develop lawyers to buttress the rule of law.