Abstract
A symposium, with the theme of "the lawsuit against the neighbor, "was held at the conference of the Japan Association of Legal and Political Sciences in November, 1984. The present paper is an extract from my presentation at that symposium from the viewpoint of legal history and the traditional legal consciousness of the Japanese. "The lawsuit against the neighbor"concerns a judgement handed down by the Tsu(津) District Court in February, 1983 in regard to an accident in which an infant was drowned in Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture in August, 1977. The couple living next door to the plaintiffs in this case acceded, with good will and without charge, to take care of the plaintiffs' child while the mother went shoopping. While the mother was absent, however, the child was drowned. The plaintiffs brought suit against the neighbor, and in the end at least partially won the suit. Following the decision, however, the plaintiffs received numerous derogatory and nasty telephone calls and letters from all over the country. Because of this pressure, the plaintiffs felt compelled to drop the case. Such a case reminds us of the traditional legal consciousness;that is, their dislikes of lawsuits. In this article, the author systematizes the theories concerning the deep-seated Japanese lagal consciousness namely, the dislike of lawsuits-introduces public reactions to this case, and studies the traditional legal consciousness of the Japanese as illustrated in this "lawsuit against the neighbor. This paper contains the following items:1. Introduction 2. "The lawsuit against the neighbor"and public reactions to it 3. Legal consciousness of the Japanese-the dislike of lawsuits 4. "The lawsuit against the neighbor"and the dislike of lawsuits 5. Prospects
