“A lawyer and a consultant were arrested in breach of attorney law of Japan on 13th November 2020.”
In this article I would like to share some information concerning some specifics of the Japanese legal system.
Legal systems (as well as practices and procedures) differ country to country. In some regions outdoor advertisement of lawyer’s services is perfectly legal but in others you and the company whose services you used will be fined.
I would like to take a look at the money collecting business, once again in some countries, it is considered unethical to receive money for collecting information on people, who do not pay their debts/loans.
But in Japan, it is furthermore completely illegal for lawyers to use their personal connections for private gains, when the so-called introduction fees are involved. I will give an example.
Let’s say you know someone, who works at a money lending company (personal loan company) and have to an arrangement, that you will be paying up to ¥100,000 as an ‘introduction fee’ for information on that company’s ‘heavy debtors’, who need legal help.
In this case, in accordance with the current Japanese Law you both should be apprehended by the Police. This rule won’t apply to ordinary people, though.
On the other hand if a lawyer is using any sort of IT- or similar services in order to create a website or to help establish social media (SNS) presence to find customers online — it is completely legal to pay the said IT-specialist for the lawyer’s website’s maintenance fee.
It does not matter if it’s ¥10,000 or a smaller/bigger amount, the same rule applies. In this case, under the Japanese law it is legal.
If you looking for a way to establish a business in Japan and not sure if your business is 100% legal, contact us and we will analyse your business idea so you are sure, that you won’t have any problems under the current Japanese law.
Here at Tomohiko Akiyama Legal Services, we are ready to solve your problems.
We are always eager to help our clients.
