The 2019 Vision for Publicizing
Japanese Laws Internationally
~ The things we must do now to correctly convey information about Japan's legal system ~
March 29, 2019
The Ministry of Justice
Council on the Vision for Publicizing Japanese Laws Internationally
The Ministry of Justice
Council on the Vision for Publicizing Japanese Laws Internationally
List of Members
Philippe Avril‐Chairman and Representative Director, BNP Paribas Securities
(Japan) Limited
Noboru Kashiwagi (Chairperson)‐Emeritus Professor, The University of Tokyo
Soichiro Sakuma‐Executive Advisor, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation
Kumi Fujisawa‐Co-Founder and President, SophiaBank
Daniel H. Foote‐Professor, The University of Tokyo Graduate Schools for Law and
Politics
Kunihiko Miyake‐Visiting Professor, Ritsumeikan University
Midori Miyazaki‐Dean, Faculty of Global Studies, Chiba University of Commerce
(The names of the members are listed in the
order of Japanese syllabary without honorifics)
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1. Introduction
To mark the 10th anniversary of the government having officially launched the Japanese
Law Translation Project, the Council on the Vision for Publicizing Japanese Laws
Internationally ("the council") has been established to provide further impetus to the project, as
well as to study the issues that need to be dealt with and the efforts that need to be made to
enhance the international credibility and transparency of the Japanese legal system by widely
publicizing information about it overseas. From January to March, 2019, council conferences
were held three times.
The council invited guest speakers to each of the conferences and made headway with
active discussions; every council member brought their expert knowledge and experience to
bear in expressing diverse points of view and ideas, while also voicing both exacting critiques
and warm words of encouragement for the government-led Japanese Law Translation
Project.
This opinion statement, the 2019 Vision for Publicizing Japanese Laws Internationally,
summarizes the direction envisioned for the project and the process for actualizing this vision,
as presented in conference discussions.
2. Reaffirming the Mission Statement and Purpose of the Project
How should the government-led Japanese Law Translation Project ("the project") be
positioned, and how should it be advanced?
As pointed out in the course of discussions on legal system reforms that led to the launch of
the project, there is no doubt in the international community that it is of significant value for
information about the law of Japan (its laws and regulations, information about its legal system,
etc.) to be properly publicized to members of the international community overseas and to
foreign nationals in Japan, and we believe that the need for this will continue to grow in the
future.
On the other hand, if we also look at recent events, we cannot necessarily say that Japan's
laws and regulations and the Japanese legal system are being evaluated correctly by the
international community, and there needs to be an effort in the government to move forward
with ensuring and improving the international community's understanding of the law of Japan.
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As the project constitutes a government effort to translate Japanese laws and regulations, it is
of foremost significance for it to contribute to the fundamental infrastructural streamlining
intended to achieve this.
Additionally, the project is being called upon to evolve. The project will need to move
forward based on the progress achieved to date by the necessary government efforts to
streamline the basic infrastructures at the national level, with special attention to (1) supporting
businesses in a way that is mindful of use by legal departments and lawyers at domestic and
foreign companies; and―with the recent increase of inbound tourism and foreign workers in
mind― (2) protecting foreign nationals in Japan. Further, since this entails transmitting
information about the nation's most fundamental infrastructure, the country's legal system,
and keeping in mind the great range of people at all levels who stand to benefit directly and
indirectly, the efforts undertaken as a government translation project should be continued and
improved into the future, and within this framework, the project is being called upon to strive
for the most effective injection of resources and to maximize results.
3. Assessment of and Issues Regarding Current Efforts
How should we look at the past 10 years of the project and the place at which the project
stands today?
It is possible to assess certain aspects of current efforts through the project, such as the
over 700 laws and regulations that have now been released on the Ministry of Justice's
dedicated website, and the user traffic of over 110,000 visits a day. Through the creation and
publication of The Standard Legal Terms Dictionary and the Law Translation Guidelines as
tools to support the translation of laws and regulations, tools have been set in place to
contribute to the quality translation of legal documents.
However, from the user perspective, many aspects of the services provided by the project
still need to be improved and expanded. For example, in terms of content, some point out that
only about 10 percent of all of Japan's laws and regulations have been translated, and that
about 30 percent of its major laws and regulations remain untranslated.As to the extent of
coordination in the translation of laws and regulations, the practice of leaving the translation
work to the discretion of each individual ministry and agency has resulted in increasing levels
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of variation. It takes an average of at least three years for translations to be released after a
law or regulation is enacted or amended. There are also insufficiencies in some aspects of the
user-facing functions of the dedicated website that provides access to the translations of laws
and regulations, such as the way that searches are handled.
Rather than rambling on in a continuation of past efforts in the project, we should take this
opportunity to clarify responses and policies that address the issues as seen from the user’s
perspective.
It is with an understanding of these and other issues that the council presents the following
as the fundamental direction of future efforts.
4. Fundamental Vision for the Future
Toward what shared fundamental vision should the efforts over the next 10 years of the
project be oriented?
The first thing we must clarify is the position and direction of the project. While
fundamentally a translation effort that is being undertaken by the government (in this point, it
differs from the government's foreign-language informational and consulting services), the
project should build upon the work accomplished to-date and make effective use of things
such as private-sector knowhow and technological advances, aiming to provide even more
accessible services.
Secondly, we need to make a clear decision about the immediate issues the project should
tackle and the order in which it should prioritize them. The approach to this must be strategic
and systematic, and it is crucial for the process to be structured in a way that ensures the
government's efforts will fully reflect the voices of the public sector and other users (user
requests and opinions). This will require inter-ministry and agency efforts on the part of the
government.
With this in mind, the first steps that we need to take in the approach to amplify and expand
the project are (1) fundamentally improving the existing service of releasing English-language
translations of the law (by increasing speed and prioritizing) and (2) launching a new
translation service to provide users with information on laws and regulations (giving users
other information in addition to the English-language translations of the law). Furthermore, to
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publicize information about the law of Japan, we should aim to provide interactive services
that emphasize functionality, and should seek to establish domestic and overseas networks
by expanding our field of vision to include cooperation with local governments, private-sector
organizations, non-government organizations, and a wide range of other related organizations
that have not been involved in efforts to this point, as well as to include collaboration with other
countries.
5. Content Enhancements to Be Prioritized
What content should be used for the information on laws and regulations that is to be
publicized internationally through the project?
1. Considerably Improving the Speed at Which TranslationsAre Released and Establishing a
New System to Facilitate Translation
First, considerable improvements need to be made in the speed of release for the
translations of laws and regulations made available through this project, while still ensuring
the translation quality. In particular, as (1) the BasicActs; (2) financial laws, intellectual
property laws, labor laws, and other laws and regulations in the field of business; and (3)
laws and regulations in fields that are pertinent to the activities of foreign enterprises and
the lives of foreign nationals are of especially high priority, translations that reflect
amendments to these laws and regulations should be released in a timely fashion. For this
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purpose, we should take this as an opportunity to make a fundamental review of the
translation process. Furthermore, a new system should be established that allows users to
have a look at which major laws and regulations in need of translation have been selected
for translation and to check on their progress; decisions should be made about translation
needs and priority (at which time, use should be made of materials such as data on user
traffic to laws and regulations through services in Japanese), and translation processes
should be improved.Additionally, with objectives such as facilitating direct investment in
Japan and propelling intellectual property strategy, it is necessary to fully elaborate a
system for incorporating requests and opinions about the project's translations from users
worldwide (for example, by revamping the website's functions or establishing a help desk).
2. Launching a Service to Release Translations for Overviews of Laws and Regulations (Brief
Informational Explanations of New andAmended Laws)
Second, as a way of providing users with easy-to understand, foreign-language
information on Japan's laws early-on (as is already being done in Japanese), the
government should work quickly to launch a service for releasing translations that give
overviews of new and amended laws. There is an exceedingly high demand for provide
users with brief translations that serve as informational overviews using, for example, the
bill descriptions and other such materials published by each of the ministries and agencies.
It seems fully feasible for this kind of translation to be made public quickly, in the time
before a law's entry into effect, and we greatly hope that a prompt effort will be made in this
regard as soon as the sharing of roles with each of the ministries and agencies has been
examined and their cooperation secured.
3. Launching a Service to Release Translations for Basic Information on Fields of Law
(Diagrams Explaining the Legal System)
Third, the project should launch a service to provide users with basic information on
different fields of law, giving a general explanation of things such as the legal system and
the relationships between various laws and regulations for each legal field in which
translations are released. If the website clarified the relationships among the laws and
regulations within a legal field (as a sort of diagram)―relationships that are easily
understood by each of the competent ministries and agencies―it would become easier for
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non-Japanese users of the service to access the translations they should be looking for,
and would also markedly improve convenience in terms of the user-facing content. The
greatest possible use should be made of existing documents that the ministries and
agencies have prepared, and after securing the cooperation of each ministry and agency,
the project should provide users with visual renderings of this information.
6. User-Facing Services to Be Prioritized
How should the user-facing services through which the project releases translations be
arranged?
1.Adding Interactive Functions to the Website Where TranslationsAre Released
First, new user-friendly functions incorporating things such as interactivity should be
added to the dedicated website operated by the Ministry of Justice on which the project
releases translations of Japan's laws and regulations. Particular priority should be placed
on arranging the dedicated website to have, for example, user guidance information, a
FAQ function, and referrals to other services.
2. Enhancing the Functions for Making InformationAvailable on the Website Where
TranslationsAre Released and Promoting Public Relations
Second, to expand the base of users, we should look into better ways of releasing
information on the dedicated website. The first things to implement are the addition of
scheduled updates (notices), and the release of relevant and associated information that is
of interest to users. In addition, we should move forward with overhauling the website to be
more user friendly, including by improving and updating the Law Search and other
functions, in view of a future system replacement.Also, in addition to coordinating with
each of the ministries and agencies, local governments, domestic and foreign research
institutes, diplomatic missions overseas, and others, the project needs to pursue public
relations through a wide range of media, symposiums, and other avenues in order to
encourage non-users to use the dedicated website.
3. Enhancing Information Partnerships through Reference and Referral Functions on the
Website Where TranslationsAre Released
Third, the project should move forward with the effort to increase user satisfaction
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(willingness to return) among those who have already visited the dedicated website,
consulting with the private sector for insight. For example, the website should also be
handling situations in which the information available through the service is insufficient or in
which a user is seeking information that is more in-depth, and we should move forward
with efforts aimed at creating information partnerships by improving functions that refer or
direct users to other information of reference, to organizations and people they can contact
with inquiries, and to related services.
7. Issues Needing Further, Continued Consideration
How should we position issues that need continued consideration in the future as well as
those that need to be addressed with priority?
1. Multilingual Translation Support
While the project currently confines itself to the release of English-language translations,
some have been calling for it to make information available in Spanish, French, Chinese,
and other languages. However, as it currently stands, we believe that improving and
expanding the dedicated website's English-language content should be the first priority,
and consider multilingual support to be a mid-term issue. This said, the relevant ministries,
agencies, and organizations should naturally make the appropriate efforts, separate from
the project, to give information that concerns the national interest, such as the credibility of
Japan's legal system, and to address things such as information pertinent to the lives of
foreign nationals in Japan, as public relations and informational releases.
2. Translation of Court Decisions
Current efforts to release translations of court decisions have lagged; specifically, the
point was raised that translations need to be provided for summaries of major and recent
decisions. We think that this would also be of great significance from the perspective of
increasing the possibility of predicting dispute-resolution outcomes. While it is true that
court decisions are based on specific cases, differ in character and structure from laws and
regulations, and are not easy to translate, the courts' efforts to do so as a service of the
justice system have progressed to some extent, and in light of growing demand, it is
anticipated that in future, we will need to work proactively, including by coordinating our
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efforts with those of the courts (through the sharing and coordination of information).
3. Use ofArtificial Intelligence in Translation Work
Some stakeholders have been vocal about their expectations for the use of artificial
intelligence in the process of translating Japan's laws and regulations, and since this has
been put into practical use in other fields, we should begin to explore the distinct possibility
of its introduction in the future. Though this point has not yet been investigated by the
project, we should begin looking into whether to introduce artificial intelligence in the future
as a tool that could contribute to improved efficiency in the translation process, after
considering things such as progress in translation technology and cost-effectiveness. But
first, it is essential for us to assess how advanced machine translation technology is and
what machine translations are being used for, and to examine the possibilities for practical
application; moving towards an inter-ministry and inter-agency infrastructure centered on
the Ministry of Justice, it is necessary for us to promptly advance an approach that will let
us look into the accuracy and process of machine translation and bring it into practical use,
in view of, for example, the work and results of the National Institute of Information and
Communications Technology (NICT), which works to advance machine translation efforts.
4. Ensuring Sufficient Human Resources to Translate Japan's Laws and Regulations
There are not enough translation professionals to take charge of the work of translating
Japan's laws and regulations, and action should be taken to address the urgent issues of
ensuring that there are sufficient human resources in this field and training them. Rather
than relying, in part, on the cooperation of a base of volunteer researchers and scholars,
we need to discuss a strategy to gain cooperation in the project from a large number of
capable personnel with an aptitude for both the law and languages. In addition to acting
quickly to incentivize this by improving the working environment (in terms of things such as
working conditions and on-the-job training) for personnel involved in the translation of
Japan's laws and regulations, in the future, we should hasten to investigate and design
achievable frameworks, including, for example, the creation of professional credentialing
for Certified Law Translators, and the use of foreign-exchange students
5. The State of Japan's Laws and Regulations
In addition to the above points, although not directly within the scope of the project, there
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was a lot of discussion at the conferences regarding the drafting style of Japan's laws and
regulations themselves. Currently, Japan's laws and regulations are drafted based on strict
rules to ensure that there is no doubt as to their interpretation, but even so, one would be
hard-pressed to say that many Japanese people find it easy to understand them. In spite of
this, there is little momentum for change. Nevertheless, since Japan's laws are publicized
internationally based on their translations, it is essential that the original Japanese writing
style itself be easy to understand. To this end, we have high expectations for the
actualization of infrastructural developments―in parallel with the progress of the project―
that go beyond the project's translation efforts, in terms of international public relations
initiatives to convey information in an easy-to-understand way that ensures a correct
understanding of the Japanese legal system; in terms of training for researchers and law
professionals as personnel responsible for publicizing this information internationally; and
in terms of facilitating international exchange.
8. Partnerships and Collaboration with the Private Sector, International Organizations,
and Others
Efforts have been made to proceed as a national project so far; but we find it necessary for
the project to expand further.
1. Industry/Academia/Government Collaboration and Encouragement to Make Use of
Private-Sector Vitality
First, we should boldly encourage ourselves to begin making use of the vitality of local
governments and the private sector, while seeking industry/academia/government
collaboration for this project, which we have not pursued to this point. It will be effective for
us to work collaboratively with research organizations that are taking a similar approach
towards Japanese laws and regulations. We should also make the data from translated
laws that the government has accumulated through this project open to the private sector
and others, and encourage the private sector to develop businesses based on their
ingenuity in using the data. For example, we can expect the development of services
motivated by commercial interests, such as the publication of a Japanese-English legal
dictionary with explanations added to the Standard Legal Terms Dictionary that has been
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developed though the project; and a basic manual for legal English that makes use of
translation knowhow.
2. Integrating and Sharing Data from Translated Japanese Laws and Regulations
Second, challenging the status quo of the industry, academia, and government
separately publicizing various data from translated Japanese laws and foreign-language
information for their business, research, and public relations activities, we should share and
integrate this data and information. We need to take it into consideration that, in the future,
this project could serve as a platform for translated information regarding Japanese laws
and regulations (such as English-language information about the law of Japan). To achieve
this goal, and for the purpose of solving this issue of scattered information, we should link
up with other services while remaining aware of users' perspectives, so that information will
be integrated and shared.
3.Active Involvement with Related Organizations Overseas and International Networks
Third, we should share information and collaborate with organizations overseas that, like
we do in this project, engage in translating the laws and regulations of their own countries
and publicizing them internationally. The Japanese government must not take an apathetic
stance toward the emerging international networks for legal information. Japan has some
issues, such as legal translation skills, ways to publicize information, and training for
personnel, that can largely be improved upon if it learns from other countries' efforts. Taking
on a leadership role, the Ministry of Justice should immediately begin to research and
assess the situation in other countries, and discuss how to apply its findings to Japan's
efforts.
9. Implementation of the Vision for the Future and Follow Up
How do we pursue and implement the vision presented in this opinion statement?
During these conferences, we have intensively discussed the future of the Japanese Law
Translation Project, a national project, as a result of which we have presented the above
statement as the direction for future efforts. We have high expectations of seeing this
implemented.
Moving forward, based on the vision presented in this opinion statement, it is necessary for
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the entire government, centered on the Ministry of Justice, to promptly formulate a concrete
strategy for publicizing Japanese laws and regulations internationally.Aconcrete
implementation plan must be created swiftly at a meeting such as the Liaison Conference of
the Relevant Ministries andAgencies, and the necessary systematic and financial
preparations for this are essential.
In terms of the importance of the users' perspectives, in addition to the existing framework,
we should form a new council with joint participation from the public sector and the private
sector, including an advisory board to oversee the project as a whole, and let it propel this
project forward as the playmaker.
Also, the strategy for this project needs to be expressed in concrete terms, reflect a sense
of urgency, and have an actual effect. Based on what we have already expressed in this
opinion statement, time limits need to be set, and the strategy needs to include the following:
1) form a council with joint participation from the public sector and the private sector
(including advisors), which will lead this project as the playmaker, within one year's
time; and promptly formulate a new strategic policy;
2) discuss and decide on a new process for finalizing translation plans that sufficiently
reflect the users' opinions, as well as a system for checking the progress of the
translations, within one year's time, and promptly implement them.
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3) systematically and faithfully resolve translation maintenance issues for all ministries'
and agencies' major laws and regulations, as well as updating the texts of these laws
and regulations in line with current statute, within three years' time; and follow up the
progress thereafter;
4) as necessary, implement and complete a comprehensive check for quality and
uniformity on the existing translations of all ministries' and agencies' laws and
regulations, within three years' time;
5) promptly decide on the content of a new service for releasing translations to be added
to the full text translation of laws and regulations. Especially, overviews (key
information on new and amended laws) and basic information on fields of law (via
diagrams describing the legal system) are to be translated and provided within one
year's time;
6) start revamping the website within one year's time to make it user-friendly. Setting the
next database system update as the tentative deadline, we should begin discussing
concrete plans to do this at once;
7) begin surveys and consultations within one year's time, pursuing
industry/academia/government collaboration and collaboration with organizations
overseas that will help give more substance to publicizing Japanese laws
internationally, and moving toward the use of machine translation and artificial
intelligence.
As soon as possible, a council with joint participation from the public sector and the private
sector should formulate a strategy that shows an awareness of the users' perspectives and
that includes the seven points listed above, to accelerate this project moving forward.
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Furthermore, in order to continue forward, it is essential to define and review problems
following the PDCAcycle. Through the establishment and publication of annual translation
project plans, this project needs to propel itself forward powerfully based on a consistent
awareness of the users' perspectives and of how it is evaluated internationally.
10. Final Remarks
In these conferences, we have discussed the future of the Japanese Law Translation
Project and the tactics for publicizing Japanese laws and regulations internationally from a
user perspective, and sought a direction for future efforts.
Although it is not easy to immediately implement everything that this opinion statement
introduces, we are certain of a future for our country in which our vision is achieved without fail.
Our expectations are high that, in the near future, we will see better implementation and
development in the international publicizing of Japanese laws and regulations, based on the
vision we have formulated in these conferences and as a result of constant efforts by each
person involved in this project; and that through this, the Japanese legal system will come to
be correctly understood and evaluated in a global context and established as an accessible
system for users worldwide, as well as becoming something that we can proudly introduce to
the world.
Conducting the Conference on the Vision for Publicizing Japanese Laws Internationally
December 18, 2018
Determination by the chairperson of
the Liaison Conference of the Relevant
Ministries and Agencies for
Developing a Foundation for
Promoting the Translation of Japanese
Laws and Regulations into Foreign
Languages
1. To mark its 10th anniversary, for the purpose of propelling the Japanese law translation project
forward, as well as broadly hearing opinions about the issues to deal with and efforts to make when
trying to enhance international credibility and transparency of the Japanese legal system through
publicizing it internationally, we conduct the Conference on the Vision for Publicizing Japanese
Laws Internationally(hereinafter referred to as the "Vision Conference").
2. Themembers of the Vision Conference are as follow:
(Chairperson) Noboru Kashiwagi Emeritus Professor, The Universityof Tokyo
Philippe Avril Chairman and Representative Director, BNP Paribas
Securities (Japan) Limited
Soichiro Sakuma Executive Advisor, NipponSteel & Sumitomo
Metal Corporation
Kumi Fujisawa Co-Founder and President,SophiaBank
Daniel H. Foote Professor, The Universityof Tokyo Graduate
Schools for Law and Politics
Kunihiko Miyake VisitingProfessor, Ritsumeikan University
Midori Miyazaki Dean, Facultyof Global Studies,Chiba University
of Commerce
3. Clerical work for the Vision Conference is carried out in the Judicial System Department, Secretarial
Division of the Ministryof Justice.
4. The Vision Conference will be closed on Friday, March 29, 2019; and the conclusion will be reported
to the Liaison Conference of the Relevant Ministries and Agencies for Developing a Foundation for
Promoting the Translation of Japanese Laws and Regulations into Foreign Languages.
COUNCIL ON THE VISION FOR PUBLICIZING JAPANESE LAWS
INTERNATIONALLY
<PAST CONFERENCES>2nd1st3rdWednesday, January 16, 2019
<Topics>
• Current Status and Issues of the Japanese Law
Translation Project
(Lecture: Professor Hirotomo Abe, Hitotsubashi University)
• Further Improvement and Development through
Utilizing Information Technology and AI
(Lecture: Google Japan LLC)
• Vision for Publicizing Japanese Laws
Internationally
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
<Topics>
• Approach to Enhancing Credibility of JapaneseLaw(Lecture: Associate Professor Junko Sugimoto, Nihon
University)
• Effective Solution in Publicizing the Japanese
Legal System
(Lecture: KADOKAWA CORPORATION)
• Vision for Publicizing Japanese Laws
Internationally
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
<Topics>
• International Trends in the International Publicizing
of Information on Laws and Regulations
(Lecture: Designated Professor Yoshiharu Matsuura, Nagoya
University)
• Vision for Publicizing Japanese Laws
Internationally
• Review Summarizing Discussions Regarding the
Publicizing of Japanese Laws Internationally