IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/ajlecn/v16y2025i1p63-85n1008.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Law and Economics in Japan’s Courts: Emerging Trends and Developments

Author

Listed:
  • Saito Hiroharu

    (Associate Professor of Law and Society, The Institute of Social Science , The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan)

Abstract

This article briefly reviews the emerging trends of incorporating law and economics perspectives within the Japanese judiciary. In the first part, I review opinions of Justice Koichi Kusano, the first justice in the history of the Supreme Court to adopt law and economics approaches. In particular, I discuss his two key approaches: the maximization of well-being and the use of quantitative empirical analysis. In the second part, I explore the broader judiciary context, including transformations in the Supreme Court’s majority opinions and the practices of lower courts and lawyers. Specifically, I highlight the Supreme Court’s growing emphasis on empirical data, particularly concerning social circumstances and public attitudes. Additionally, I analyze the subsequent shift in lawyers’ practices, which increasingly include the submission of survey data and statistical evidence. I also present emerging trends in the annual number of court decisions that reference regression analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Saito Hiroharu, 2025. "Law and Economics in Japan’s Courts: Emerging Trends and Developments," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 63-85.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:ajlecn:v:16:y:2025:i:1:p:63-85:n:1008
    DOI: 10.1515/ajle-2025-2001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/ajle-2025-2001
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/ajle-2025-2001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:ajlecn:v:16:y:2025:i:1:p:63-85:n:1008. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyterbrill.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.