Abstract
One of the social functions of litigation was a challenge to Japanese murky social ordering led by administrative agencies purporting to work up bublic opinions on policy matters. However, recent judicial reform is trying to turn the way of social ordering itself into more transparent one led by legal system. This paper examines the influences of this change of judicial circumstances on social function of policy-oriented litigation. Through analysis of the meaning of development of right consciousness and emergence of multiple channels for negotiation, I find the possibility of facilitation and control of those processed as an important role of litigation.
