Japanese Contract Law

In this context, the question "Where does Japan stand?" can be raised. Japanese scholars as well as scholars of Japanese law from other countries frequently discuss this issue. On the one hand side, Japanese civil law, and in particular the provisions in the Japanese Civil Code (Minpō, enacted in 1898) regarding contract law, are based on European models of contract law of the 19th century. Japanese contract law was especially influenced by the drafts of the German Civil Code, which eventually came into force on January 1, 1900, and German prevalent legal theories around that time. On the other hand, many scholars take the view that the different Japanese culture implicates a different legal consciousness of contract in Japan, if not already

Is Japan somewhat exceptional in emphasizing social norms over (written) contract law?

Does Japan need a contract law different from the present one?

Addressing the third question is currently of particular relevance also for Japanese legislators in view of the current discussion on a far-reaching reform of the law of obligations.

Apart from the civil law provisions governing contracts in Japan, a rarely noticed distinctive feature of Japanese law is that the formation, the content and the performance and enforcement of contracts in Japan is subject to comprehensive and intensive regulation by administrative law, i.e. by public law, which cannot be found to such extent in any European legal system or in U.S. law, in particular not in those legal systems that once were regarded as models for the Japanese civil law in general, and in particular those that served as models for the introduction of a modern contract law.

It worth mentioning that

In the Japanese Juridical person's capacity to hold rights, the provisions are said to have been influenced by the ultra vires doctrine under English law. However, as with the abandonment of the ultra vires doctrine in England, this article has very limited application in

Thus, the analysis must begin with the hypothesis that Japanese law exhibits a more substantive orientation along this dimension. In fact, a closer analysis shows that Japanese law has been slow to develop such standards, particularly in regulating unfair contracts on standard form

While along the dimension of "authoritative formality", it has been noted that English law has traditionally looked almost exclusively to the source of statute law or of case law, to determine its validity, with little scope to investigate or challenge its content, therefore the English Common law, can be defined as a legal system developed in England, it is based on applying legal precedent (stare decisis) to present and future decisions made by judges.

However, they hold variety of similarity for instant;

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