Comparing product safety and liability law in Japan: from Minamata to mad cows – and Mitsubishi

Lay Participation in Japan. Masahiro Fujita, Japanese Society and Lay Participation in Criminal Justice (Singapore: Springer, 2018) pp 282. Hardcover: $169.

“…This highlights the strong element of chance in politics and law reform. It was also evident, for example, in the Product Liability Act just getting through Parliament in 1994, in the dying days of an unusual one-year period when the LDP was completely out of power in the lower House: Nottage (2004), Chapter 2. 4. This contrasts, for example, with the deliberative council administered by the MoJ that produced the recent reforms to the contract-law provisions of the Civil Code.…”

Europeanisation of Product Liability in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Preliminary Empirical Benchmark

“…Under the EC Directive (Kellam 2000b;Nottage 2004, chapter 3) "defect" is defined widely: Products have a defect if their safety is not such as persons are generally entitled to expect. Factors to be taken into account in deciding whether or not a product is defective include: the presentation of the product, the use to which it could reasonably be put, and the time when the product was put into circulation.…”

“…Following vigorous debate, during which Japanese consumer organisations advocated the introduction of product liability laws similar to those existing in the US, the Japanese Product Liability Law of 1994 based upon provisions of the EC Directive came into effect (Nottage 2004 Australia debated a possible tort law crisis resulting in civil liability law reform first at state, then federal, levels. Implementation of these reforms has significantly restricted consumers entitlements to recover compensation in personal injury claims, and has introduced considerable confusion into Australian law (Kellam and Nottage 2007).…”

Corporate Governance and Law Reform in Japan: From the Lost Decade to the End of History?

“…Full-scale 'Americanisation of Japanese law' seems equally, if not more, implausible. Indeed, aspects of Japanese private law may be undergoing a new round of 'Europeanisation' and more idiosyncratic globalisation (Nottage 2004). …”