the Wilson Center's East Asia Program, June 6,1983.
Few Americans would deny that theirs is a "litigious society." U.S. law schools, for example, graduate 35,000 students every year; in all of Japan there are fewer than 15,000 practicing attorneys.
Such comparisons, however, can be misleading. Michael K. Young, who teaches law at Columbia University, notes that Japanese undergraduate law departments turn out 38,000 gradu- ates yearly. Most take the entrance exam for the Legal Training...