This is a report of main results related to research on law functioning in contemporary Japan in order to verify two working hypotheses, one of which was published under the title of "Three-Level Structure of Law in a World of Many Cultures" in Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie, " Beiheft Nr. 11, 1979.
Japan is said to have successfully received western systems of state law after the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and after world war II. In reality, however, indigenous law is found widespread throughout the three levels of law in contemporary Japanese society, whether adopted as the official state law, or co-existing peacefully with, or in conflict, with the state law to be categorized as unofficial law, or else supporting the values of the unofficial laws to be called legal postulates.
The conclusion is that there is a dynamic interaction between indigenous law and received law on all levels and that the working hypotheses of the three-level structure f law and co-existence of indigenous law and received law are basically verified, although furthur conceptual elaboration is required in the formulation of both hypotheses.
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