The State of Japanese Legal Studies in Europe

The purpose of the joint article is to draw a map of the present state Japanese legal studies (in a broad sense) across Europe. It is divided into country sections, each of which has been written by a “country representative”, i.e. an expert in the field of Japanese law from the following eight jurisdictions: Italy, France, Israel, Scandinavia, Spain, The Low Countries, Belgium, The United Kingdom, and Germany. The emerging picture shows a widely varying degree of interest and engagement in teaching, researching, and practicing Japanese law. In some countries, Japanese legal studies are part of Japanese studies in general, in others they are positioned within the context of comparative law or, more specifically, East Asian legal studies.