What would you do in a world without lawyers? Well, for all intents and purposes that that’s the reality of life in Japan, a country that has just one lawyer for every 7325 people, compared with one per 288 individuals in the United States. Lawyers are extremely rare in Japan, and I’ve only met one during my 19 years in the country, despite having several friends in the U.S. who hold law degrees. Since people obviously need to file various legal documents at different times in their lives, there’s a lesser official called shiho shoshi (which Google tells me translates as “administrative scrivener”) who can file papers related to starting businesses, buying land and so on. Like politicians, doctors and certified public accountants, lawyers in Japan belong to a class of occupations that have a special status, and they’re called by the respectful title of sensei. And I’m pretty sure they don’t have lawyer jokes in Japan.
If you want to live in a place with no lawyers, come to Japan.
