The Tokyo Public Law Office has set up a new section specializing in providing legal assistance to foreign residents in Japan, focusing on the individual needs of foreigners, rather than just the overall requirements of organizations or corporate clients.
This is the first such attempt by a bar association in Japan to offer legal services for individual foreigners who have limited access to lawyers because of the language barrier, lack of information and cultural differences.
Although there are many multinational law offices in Japan, they mainly cater to corporations and business clients, in addition to the fact that most lawyers in Japan also tend to hesitate to take the cases involving individual foreigners, as many cases require detailed knowledge of the immigration law and laws outside Japan.
The public law office was established in 2002 with assistance from the Tokyo Bar Association to conduct various pro-bono activities. It said the new section is in response to rising needs for legal assistance from foreign residents in Japan (now numbering more than 2 million).
Although the new section will provide legal access to residents in Tokyo and around, it will work in close cooperation with the Lawyers Network for Foreigners, a nationwide network of lawyers handling foreign cases, to reach out to residents living outside of Tokyo as well, the office said.
The new section will offer a legal consultation by about 30 lawyers at various times at its office in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward and via telephone in Japanese, English, Korean, French, Spanish and Chinese.
On-site consultation, which requires telephone reservation at 03-5979-2880, is also provided in Portuguese, Indonesian, Bengali, Thai, Tagalog and Burmese on Sundays.
Photo credit: Singhca / Wikimedia
Comments
Hi,
May I know what was the resone that you waw looking for lawyer?
I have no idea about lawyers here, But I have learned a little about japanese
law thru different quires..
If you like I can share them to you if I know the reason for you to look for lawyer..
Good luck. Thanks..
Point taken. So did you find anywhere that was actually good? I’m looking for somewhere to go but haven’t found anywhere decent yet though.
Where’s the dislike button..?
went to this legal service to get some visa info. first, they couldn’t speak english. second they only refer you to a lawyer – that can’t speak english and wants to get paid for their extremely lack of legal knowledge. fact three – japanese lawyers are the dumbest and least skilled lawyers in the free world!
this “office” of idiots handed me a flier that was torn and tattered – obviously hand held scores of times in trembling little tobacco stained hands that couldn’t communicate with a fiery gaijin regarding the most simplest of questions.
these idiots then gave me an address and phone number to go to that helped gaijin.
the office was closed two years earlier and the phone was as disconnected as these dinosaur brained golgathas.
the current office renter told me that they had been there for at least two years.
baka!
take away the 62.7% food these fuckers import from the u.s. and china and they’ll start behaving like an oceanworld seal instead of granmommies little brat. japanese prove time and again they are the dinosaur brained pigs of the planet.
have you ever seen people struggle with the english language so terribly? and this… from a nation that “boasts” a 99.7% literacy rate and study english for years! honto ni!!!
Fuck off xistentialartist because you know damn well what blaqmagic said is 100% true. these japanese ahos are by far the most racist pigs on the planet. fyi – that “legal” service is a guise. they can’t and won’t help anyone.
this is bullshit. TOTAL BULLSHIT don’t waste your time or train money. i went there to speak about a legal issue with them and nobody could speak English, finally — one young woman that spent 6 months in australia tried to talk with me. i had a simple legal matter, and in typical japanese clusterfuck style had it overblown to the nth degree with no legal help at all. they sent me to another location, for “gaijin” but nobody bothered to tell them their stupid flier, which was tattered from many handlings was outdated, and the office AND phone number were long history.
the current business owner told me he’d been there for 2 years. so, what does that tell you?
a utterly useless and pathetic waste of time.
does gaijinpot ever check their sources? ever?
welcome to nihon.
i would suggest going to one of those other aforementioned countries if that is the way you feel.
All foriegners are not unfriendly. I find that the Japanese are the ones that are not as friendly. I’ve lived in many countries of Europe and Asia, and find that Japanese are the most distant of all countries and present themselves as above all others.
Very happy to see Japan is making it a little easier for its friendly or not so friendly gaijin residents 🙂
Hope this helpfulness continues to grow on other parts of the Japanese system