We’ve had a few lawyers now in Japan for a few different
things, and they’re not like the TV shows. That’s probably not surprising, but
the degree to which TV is wrong is immense. We talk about our experiences with
lawyers in Japan, plus our usual digressions.

Transcript

K: So, lately I’ve been thinking about Japanese lawyers and
the Japanese legal system.

C: I love thinking about lawyers, how did you know?

K: Well, I’ve just been like kind of reminiscing about our
life, and I think something that’s so weird about my life personally, is that
something that they don’t tell you about when you’re a foster kid is that
sometimes it involves a lot of lawyers. So I’ve had lawyers in my life since I
was about 9 years old because that’s when I decided I didn’t want to go back
home – that I was just going to stay in my foster home. And I had to get- it
was a whole thing. It was a whole thing to stay in the foster system and break
away. And then I had lawyers when I emancipated, and then- it was just a series
of lawyers throughout my life. I had lawyers after I had Rasta. I had lawyers
when I got a divorce, lawyers when we got married, and it just feels like
lawyers for days.

C: Yes.

K: Sort of my life. And if you watch popular television –
well, I never watched any Japanese serial television shows, so I don’t know
what the Japanese popular television says their lawyers are like, but I know
that the news makes it sound like their lawyers are really effective and really
go-getters and don’t lose. Like the district attorney never loses kind of
thing.

C: Well the prosecutors rarely lose. There’s like a 99%
conviction rate in Japan.

K: Right, but what they don’t tell you is that the police
don’t send a case to the prosecutors that they think they won’t win.

C: Right, so they do send- there are less people in Japanese
jail per capita than the US. The US (prison system) is one of the most
populated in the world despite having only like a 60% conviction rate.

K: Right, so something that I thought was- that I think is
really interesting is the difference between American lawyers and Japanese
lawyers. Or the difference of my perception of what lawyers should be.

C: Mhmm.

K: Because in the United States, you expect to get you- so I
don’t know if anybody watched Boston Legal or watches Boston Legal, one of our
favorite shows. Or Law and Order, another one of our favorite shows. But it
makes it seem like lawyers are really aggressive and they fight hard for your
case in the United States. Like Alan Shore, he could do everything from divorce
to corporate to contract to criminal. Like, he did everything. And that’s not
real.

C: Not if you’re charging a thousand dollars an hour. You’re
not that desperate.

K: Right? And, but wait a minute, that’s all different types
of law.

C: Right. And there’s only one kind of lawyer in the US –
there’s lawyers. Like, some might go on to get an LLM or some other stuff, but
they’re still just lawyers. And Japan, there’s three different types of
lawyers, and they have entirely different systems. You have the bengoshi, who
are the trial lawyers, and they can do-

K: So, do bengoshi, do they do criminal and- I don’t think
you have to be a bengoshi to be like a divorce lawyer even though sometimes
those cases go to court.

C: To go to court, you have to be a bengoshi.

K: Okay.

C: You don’t have to be a bengoshi to handle a divorce, you
can be a gyoseishoshi, which is usually translated as “judicial scrivener.”

K: Mhmm.

C: So they’re paperwork experts, but not trial.

K: So is that- so, I personally worked with one lawyer- two
lawyers. I personally worked with two lawyers. I had one lawyer that I worked
with on a defamation case and our immigration lawyers.

C: Well, and we