Abstract
This article studies the protection of retail and professional investors when financial products are sold or when investment advice is given. To this end, it clarifies the similarities and differences in the legal setting governing investment services firms in Germany and Japan, with a particular focus on a) the persons to be protected, b) information to be provided and c) private enforcement. Although regulatory structures are largely divergent in these two jurisdictions, the legal situation converges in several important points in relation to lawmaking in the European Union and the United States. Those convergences appear informative for the development of laws in jurisdictions other than Germany and Japan.
Note
Some sections of this article are based on Harald Baum, Information Duties under German Capital Markets Law, in: Marc Dernauer/Harald Baum/Moritz Bälz (ed.), Information Duties: Japanese and German Private Law, 2018, p. 217–236, and Toshiaki Yamanaka/Gen Goto, Information Duties under Japanese Capital Markets Law, ibid., p. 209–216. European regulatory materials and the (semi-)official translations of Japanese legal texts sometimes differ in their terminology. We use pertinent terms such as “client(s)” (European regulatory sources) and “customer(s)” (Japanese legal sources), where possible, synonymously.
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
