September 10, 2009
"The Japanese Legal Climate and Practicing in Japan"
12:15 p.m.-1:15 p.m.
Jerome Greene Hall, Room 646 David A. Sneider Partner, Corporate Division, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, Japan
October 23, 2009 "Lehman's Collapse as Seen From Tokyo: Recent Japanese Financial Reforms" 12:15 p.m.-1:15 p.m. William and June Warren Hall, Room 600 Akihiro Wani
Partner, Linklaters, Tokyo Mr. Wani is Japan's leading financial institutions lawyer and a 1982 LL.M. graduate of Columbia Law School.
November 3, 2009 Isaac Shapiro Celebration
6:30-8:00, Drapkin Lounge
The Center for Japanese Legal Studies Celebrates the Publication of Edokko: Growing Up a Foreigner in Wartime Japan,
amemoir by Isaac Shapiro, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
February 19, 2009
"Japanese Legal Education in Crisis, and a Chance for a New Beginning in Korea"
Setsuo Miyazawa Visiting International Professor, Fordham Law School, and Professor of Law,
Aoyama Gakuin University Law School
Professor Miyazawa spoke about difficulties the Japanese legal education system has experienced in the past, including a low National Bar Exam passing rate, a shallow education being made up for in cram schools, and too few attorneys to properly serve the population. He described various reform measures that have been attempted--and which often succeeded. He also painted a portrait of the current situation and set forth a series of challenges which the Japanese legal system faces today.
Materials in support of his lecture are downloadable in pdf form, below.
March 3, 2009
"Where is the Japanese M&A Market Headed?"
Arthur Mitchell Partner, White & Case Tokyo
November 5, 2008 "Evaluating Japan's New Jury (Saiban-in) System: A Roundtable Discussion Featuring Perspectives from the Japanese Judiciary and Prosecutor's Office, as well as U.S and Japanese Commentators"
A brochure of this conference is available in .pdf for downloading, below.
This roundtable was supported by the Kaoru Kashiwagi Fund in Japanese Law and was assembled by the Center for Japanese Legal Studies entirely from participants in residence at the Law School.
Panelists included Professor Takashi Maruta of Kwansei Gakuin University Law School; Nanae McIlroy, a public prosecutor with the Ministry of Justice, Japan; Reiko Kaihatsu, a judge from the Saitama Distric Court, Japan; and Jeffrey Fagan, Professor of Law and Public Health and co-director of the Center for Crime, Community and the Law, Columbia Law School. The moderator was Curtis J. Milhaupt, the director of the Center for Japanese Legal Studies.
October 12, 2007 "Japan’s Emerging M&A Market: Defensive Measures, Judicial Review, and Insider Trading"
A brochure of this conference is available in .pdf for downloading, below.
The conference was organized by the Tokyo law firm, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto and co-sponsored by the Center for Japanese Legal Studies of Columbia Law School and the Center on Japanese Economy and Business of Columbia Business School.
Panelists included Satoshi Kawai and other leading Japanese M&A lawyers, Yuto Matsumura and Katsumasa Suzuki from the law firm of Mori Hamada & Matsumoto. Commentary was provided by professors John C. Coffee, Jr., Ronald Gilson, and Jeffrey Gordon. The conference was moderated by Professor Curtis J. Milhaupt.
Session one was called, "Recent Developments in the M&A Market," and the second session was called, "Judicial Review of Insider Trading and its Impact on the M&A Market"
Lecture: Thursday, April 6, 2006, 12:15 p.m. "Trust from Anglo-American Law, Contracts from Civil Law: The Mixed Legal System of Japan"
--Yoshihisa Nomi, Professor of Law (Civil Law), Tokyo University
Professor Nomi is a member of the Law Reform Committee of the Ministry of Justice. He is also the president of the Japan Association of Private Law and the president of the Japan Trust Law Association. He received his LL.B. from the University of Tokyo in 1972. He has been a visiting scholar at Freiburg Univerity; University College, London; and at London University. At Columbia Law School, Prof. Nomi is a visiting professor and is teaching Introduction to Japanese Law during Spring 2006.
Lecture: Monday, March 27, 2006, 12:15 p.m. "'Japanese Only'--The Otaru Onsens (Hot Springs) Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan"
--Debito Arudou, Associate Professor at Hokkaido Information University and an American who became a naturalized Japanese citizen
A human rights activist, Mr. Arudou has authored two books, Japanese Only--The Otaru Onsen Refusals and Racial Discrimination in Japan as well as its Japanese-language version. He publishes a regular newsletter and columns for The Japan Times. His bilingual website on human rights issues and living in Japan is http://www.debito.org.
Although Japan effected the UN Convention on Racial Discrimination in 1996, the country has adopted no laws against racial discrimination. "Japanese Only" signs appear in shops, hotels, restaurants, bars, karaoke parlors, and public bathhouses nationwide. Mr. Arudou discuss his activities against this form of discrimination, including a successful lawsuit against an exclusionary onsen (hot spring) and the City of Otaru that went all the way to Japan's Supreme Court. He will also discuss what this trend means for Japan's future, both as a society with an aging labor force and as a member of the international community.
Lecture: "U.S.-Japan Regulatory Interaction: A Case Study of Sarbanes-Oxley and Its Implications" --Tetsuo Kabe, Economic Counselor, The Japanese Embassy, Washington, DC
On Wednesday, November 30, 2005, Mr. Kabe discussed U.S.-Japan economic negotiations, using the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (passed in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom scandals) as an illustration. Sarbanes-Oxley applies to all firms whose shares are listed on U.S. stock exchanges, including a substantial number of Japanese firms. Passage of the act triggered high-level negotiations between the governments of the United States and Japan, which Mr. Kabe described.
The Center hosts a variety of intellectual exchanges among scholars, practitioners, and the Law School community, periodically hosting conferences on timely matters of law or legal development in Japan.
In August 2005, the Center hosted a Tokyo conference entitled "Gatekeepers and Corporate Governance: Recent Developments in the United States and Japan," co-sponsored by the law firms of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune and Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu. The conference examined the roles and responsibilities of independent advisors (referred to as "gatekeepers" in the United States) in light of changing regulations and practices, and was the first of its kind in Japan. U.S. participants include Dean David Schizer, Professor Milhaupt, Professor John Coffee, Harvey Goldschmid (CLS '65), Professor and Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board member Daniel Goelzer.
In 2003, the Center hosted a conference in Tokyo, entitled "Hostile Mergers and Acquisitions and the Poison Pill in Japan: Prospects and Policy," sponsored by the law firm of Mori Hamada & Matsumoto. U.S. participants included Professor Milhaupt, Professor Ronald Gilson, and Delaware Chancellor William Chandler III. Presaging business and legal developments today, the conference off ered timely insight into appropriate managerial and judicial responses to hostile takeovers in Japan.
The Center marked its 25th anniversary during the 2004-05 academic year with a distinguished lecture series, generously supported by the law firms of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune and Mitsui Yasuda Wani & Maeda.
Leading scholars, practitioners, and government officials addressed students and faculty on important issues of Japanese law and policy, including:
J. Mark Ramseyer, Harvard Law School - Japan as Urban Legend
Isaac Shapiro, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP - An American Lawyer in Japan: A Personal Matter
Kazuo Sugeno, University of Tokyo - Th e Changing Legal System in Japan: What's Emerging?
Masahiko Aoki, Stanford University - Institutional Change in Japan
Charles K. Whitehead, Columbia Law School (formerly Citigroup Japan) - Scandals as a Regulatory Tool: The Case of Japanese Finance
Mark West, University of Michigan - Reputation, Information and Scandal in Japan and America
Zenichi Shishido, Seikei University, Harvard Law School (visiting) - The Turnaround of 1997: Japan's Changing System of Corporate Governance
Tetsuo Kabe, Japanese Embassy, Washington, D.C. - U.S.- Japan Regulatory Interaction: A Case Study of Sarbanes- Oxley and Its Implications
Justice Itsuo Sonobe, formerly Supreme Court of Japan- The Role of the Judiciary in Japanese Society
Dr. Harald Baum, Max Planck Institute - Japanese Legal Studies in Europe
Anthony Zaloom, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto - The Rise of the Large Law Firm in Japan and its Prospects for the Future
