BOOK REVIEW

• Author: Helena H M Chan
• Date: 01 December 1992
• Citation: (1992) 4 SAcLJ 364
• Published date: 01 December 1992

THE LAW OF COMMERCE IN JAPAN: A COLLECTION OF INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Edited by Haig Oghigian. [Singapore: Prentice Hall. 1993. xvi + 109 pp. Hardcover: S$39.95]

As Professor Ezra Vogel of Harvard University rightly points out in his foreword, Japanese industry, finance, science and technology have made such an impact around the world that, increasingly, it is being realised that Japan has become too important to be relegated to a small group of specialists. Western lawyers are having to deal more and more with Japanese clients and business practices. At the same time, however, it is not easy for non-specialists to locate the information they need. Also, non-specialist practitioners often do not have the time to sift through tomes on Japanese Law. This book therefore meets a very real and practical need. It provides the foreign lawyer with a brief introduction to the various areas of Japanese commercial law.

As its purpose and brevity clearly indicate, this book is not intended to be a treatise on Japanese commercial law. Instead, it is meant to be a practical guide to the foreign lawyer who encounters questions relating to Japanese commercial law. This book provides him, not with the answers, but with a quick overview of the area of law in question, so as to enable him to discuss the matter more knowledgeably with a Japanese law specialist. Apart from its usefulness to practitioners, the book could also be used as part of the materials in a course on Japanese Law, to provide a brief overview of Japanese commercial law. Yet another declared purpose of the book is to provide objective information rather than subjective opinion i.e. to present the various areas of Japanese commercial law as they are, without any attempt at critical evaluation — another feature that reflects the book’s...