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The Importance of <i>Wa</i> When Doing Business in Japan
'The Master said, in hearing litigation, I am no different from any other man. But if you insist on a difference, it is, perhaps, that I try to get parties not to resort to litigation in the first place.' The Analects of Confucius, Book XII, Section 13.
In that statement, and others in the Analects, Confucius demonstrates a distrust of law and litigation as a means of regulating society and promoting goodness that is still evident in many Asian cultures, including Japan. Subscribers to the tenants of Confucianism are generally suspicious of codified laws, contracts, and formal judicial proceedings, which are seen as too inflexible to handle myriad circumstances and experiences that may arise in personal and business relationships. Confucius chose to trust people, not laws, to promote a well ordered and smoothly running society. Under such a view, litigation serves only to make society more confrontational, less harmonious, and less orderly.
Volumes have been written on the supposed non-litigious nature of the Japanese, usually citing statistics showing there are hundreds of times fewer attorneys and lawsuits per capita in Japan as compared to the U.S. These statistics are generally misleading because they fail to take into account the structure of the Japanese court system itself, which presents significant barriers for litigants.
Blanket statements that the Japanese have a cultural aversion to litigation, then, must be qualified. That said, there is a lesser sense of majesty of the law in Japan than there is in the U.S. In Japan, the law and the minutiae of a written contract are not the guiding principles of relationships, but rather something to fall back on as a last resort.
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