About Yoshie Midorikawa Yoshie Midorikawa was admitted to the Bar in Japan in 2007 and New York in 2015. Her areas of expertise include many aspects of litigation, alternative dispute resolution, corporate governance and commercial disputes, and her insights on Japanese law have been published widely. The Legal 500 Asia Pacific listed her as one of the Next Generation Partners in Japan for Dispute Resolution in 2023. About Miura & Partners Miura & Partners was established in 2019 as an independent law firm in Tokyo with the aim of creating a new platform for innovative and businessminded professionals. Ever since, the team has handled various cutting-edge cases in the areas of commercial disputes and M&A. Asian Legal Business has listed Miura & Partners as one of the FAST 30: Asia’s fastestgrowing law firms in 2021 and 2022. Contact Yoshie Midorikawa Partner, Miura & Partners 3F East Tower Otemachi First Square 1-5-1, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0004 Tel: +81-3-6270-3515 Fax: +81-3-6270-3501 E: yoshie.midorikawa@miura-partners.com www.miura-partners.com/en/ I handled when I was a junior associate, the manager of the client told me one day that I understood the facts and background of the case better than he did, despite the fact that it was he who was in charge of the project. At that moment, I felt that while reconstructing and presenting the case to the decision makers in the dispute resolution process was challenging, it was also fulfilling when I did it right. Since then, I have followed a simple principle in doing my job: “Understand the case better than your client”. How do you expect the dispute resolution sector in your jurisdiction to develop in 2023 and future years? Civil litigation procedures in Japan are currently done mostly offline. For example, lawyers still need to file a case by hand or by post, and online hearings are not available. Court proceedings came to a temporary halt in 2020 when COVID-19 placed restrictions on this routine. Not only have court proceedings normalised after this critical situation, but in 2022, the Diet passed a bill to amend the Code of Civil Procedure to accommodate the demands for enabling civil litigation procedures to be conducted online. The reform of the related legislation will be implemented in a few phases, enabling, among other things, online submission of documents and online witness hearings in Japanese litigation. Part of this reform will come into force on 1 March 2023. In addition, a bill will be submitted to the Diet this year to amend the Arbitration Act to align it with the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (2006) and to bring it in line with the Singapore Convention, which gives enforceability to settlements based on a certain degree of mediation. On a more practical note, in 2022, a ‘business court’ has been established in Tokyo for the first time in Japan to aim to handle business-related and international cases involving intellectual property, commercial matters and bankruptcy. As the dispute resolution field in Japan becomes increasingly international and digital, I expect that the updated system will offer an effective dispute resolution experience both domestically and internationally. I hope to be able to be part of this change by representing clients before Japanese courts. THOUGHT LEADER 73 Civil litigation procedures in Japan are currently done mostly offline. For example, lawyers still need to file a case by hand or by post, and online hearings are not available.
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