This book escorts readers on an exploratory journey through nodal moments in the legal life of Japan, as described and critiqued in literature from the Edo period to the modern age. Through close readings of influential texts, the chapters explore the complex and evolving relationships between Japan’s legal doctrine, civic institutions and prevailing conceptions of justice and propriety. For scholars of law and literature, the book provides a theoretically informed model for enquiries into non-Western legal environments. For students of Japanese law, history and society, it offers accessible and engaging explorations substantive areas of Japanese law from an interdisciplinary perspective. For comparative legal scholars, it suggests an approach to understanding the intersection of Japanese law and culture shorn of the exoticism of older comparative analyses, closing the methodological gulf between Japanese and general comparative legal discourse.

Giorgio Fabio Colombo is Professor of Comparative Law at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy. He is the Secretary-General of the Italian Association of Japanese Studies (AISTUGIA), and the Director of Ca’ Foscari International College.

James C. Fisher is a Senior Lecturer at the Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Australia. He has previously held positions at the Australian National University, Sophia University and the University of Tokyo.