Legal Education and the Reproduction of the Elite in Japan

Although it is debatable whether the upper members of Japan s Diet, public bureaucracy, and business community truly command Japanese society, it can be said that nothing important is decided without their participation. This article analyzes the relationship between legal education and the reproduction of those elite in Japan. A brief analysis of the historical development of the legal education in Japan, compared to the more recent landscape of Japanese politics, bureaucracy, and business, shows that the basic relationship between legal education and reproduction of the post-World War II-elite has largely carried into the present. Reproduction of legal academia elite (ie law professors) and judicial elite are also considered, with an overall focus on what reforms will be needed to change problematic aspects of this continuing pattern.