The conundrum of low litigation rates in Japanese civil law cases has fascinated scholars of Japanese and comparative law for a number of decades. In turn, this has generated considerable discussion and created an extensive body of literature. The debate extends beyond straightforward statistical analysis to encompass a sociocultural analysis of the Japanese legal system and the interaction of Japanese citizens with the law and legal processes. The tensions between Japanese scholarship and the analysis of scholars outside Japan gathered pace in the 1970s. The Nihonjinron literature of the 1960s and 1970s had served both to reinforce national identity and to claim Japanese cultural “uniqueness.” Its pseudo-anthropological narrative promoted the idea of a homogenous, hierarchical society that emphasizes the group rather than the individual. By relying on a theory of Japanese uniqueness, it was thought that differences between Japanese and Western societies could be explained. The pervasive nature of the Nihonjinron theory meant that academic literature on the Japanese legal system and its laws refl ected a similar discourse. Thus, in one of the early English-language texts on Japanese law, Yosiyuki Noda characterized the relationship between the Japanese and their law as follows: “To an honourable Japanese the law is something that is undesirable, even detestable, something to keep as far away from as possible. To never use the law, or be involved with the law, is the normal hope of honourable people. To take someone to court to guarantee the protection of one’s own interests, or to be mentioned in court, even in a civil matter, is a shameful thing. . . . In a word, Japanese do not like law.” During the same period, one of Japan’s foremost legal sociologists, Takeyoshi Kawashima, emphasized the role Japanese culture plays in attitudes to litigation. He suggested that low litigation rates in civil disputes could be explained by reference to sociocultural norms unique to Japan. Against this background

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第二佳正义：日本私法的美德 J. Mark Ramseyer

几十年来，日本民法案件中诉讼率低的难题一直吸引着日本法和比较法学者。反过来，这引起了大量讨论，并创造了大量文献。辩论超越了直接的统计分析，包括对日本法律制度的社会文化分析以及日本公民与法律和法律程序的互动。日本学术与日本以外学者的分析之间的紧张关系在 1970 年代加快了步伐。1960 年代和 1970 年代的日本神论文学既强化了民族认同，又宣称了日本文化的“独特性”。它的伪人类学叙事促进了一个强调群体而非个人的同质、等级社会的想法。依靠日本独特性的理论，人们认为可以解释日本和西方社会之间的差异。日本人论的普遍性意味着关于日本法律制度及其法律的学术文献反映了类似的话语。因此，在一本关于日本法律的早期英文文本中，野田洋行将日本人和他们的法律之间的关系描述如下：“对于一个正直的日本人来说，法律是不受欢迎的，甚至是可憎的，是应该遵守的。尽可能远离。不使用法律，不参与法律，是有尊严的人的正常希望。把某人告上法庭以保证自己的利益得到保护，或者在法庭上被提及，即使是在民事案件中，都是一件可耻的事情。. . . 一句话，日本人不喜欢法律。” 在同一时期，日本最重要的法律社会学家之一川岛武吉强调了日本文化在诉讼态度中的作用。他认为，民事纠纷中的低诉讼率可以通过参考日本特有的社会文化规范来解释。在此背景下