The term "law-consciousness" (ho-ishiki) refers to (1) the attitudes towards the content of law as criteria for legal sanctions, or (2) the ideas about the system of positive law. It is in this second sense that the "law-consciousness of the Japanese" has been mostly discussed and the feebleness of rights-consciousness of the Japanese has been emphasized. On the other hand, one can hardly discover the law-consciousness in the first sense among the common people, where the socalled "Kadi-Justiz" (Max Weber) is widely accepted and the notion of rights is not yet developed. In Japan, the basis on which the law-consciousness in the first sense can be discussed has come into existence only after the Second World War. In the following analysis, the term "law-consciousness" means only the law-consciousness in the first sense.
There are today two problems in the study of law-consciousness.
1. The comparative study of law-consciousness.
The law-consciousness of the Japanese ought to be researched in comparison with those of other peoples, especially in Western Europe and the United States. For example, the law-consciousness concerning self-help (abatement, etc.) could be studied in a comparative manner. Such actions seem to be permitted with difficulty in Japan, to some extent easily in France and Germany, and more easily in England and the United States. Additionally, the law-consciousness concerning negotiorum gestio is also a potentially fruitful area of comparative research. (On this subject, see the suggestive description by an American scholar in 74 Harv. L. Rev. 817 and 1073 (1961).) Comparative law-consciousness is a part of comparative culture, and therefore demands cooperative research by students from various fields of the social sciences.
2. The study of conflicts among people's law-consciousness within a nation.
As a matter of fact, there are usually often conflicts among people's lawconsciousness which are a significant factor for changes in the criteria for legal sanctions. From this point of view, it is important to research the law-consciousnees of those persons who put legal institutions into operation, especially police officers, public prosecutors and judges. Furthermore, it is necessary to research law-processes (judicial process, administrative process or legislative process) where various kinds of conflicts regarding law-consciousness appear in concrete forms and a change in the criteria for legal sanctions is caused or prevented. Research into such law-processes must be made simultaneously with research into various types of law-consciousness conflicts.

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This paper attempts to give a brief overview of the works of the Japanese legal scientists concerning the "Law-consciousness of the Japanese", a subject which has occupied and is still occupying the center of attention of the Japanese lawyers, more or less empirically oriented. The author starts by making distinction between "the general sense of justice" component and "the idea of law" component of the term law-consciousness, and concentrates on the latter for the rest of the paper. According to the author, the theme of law-consciousness of the Japanese appeared first in the Japanese intellectual community under the term of the law abiding spirit which was deemed by Professor Kawashima to be lacking among the Japanese populace of the war time, and after the war the theme took a firm root as a respect for law and the modern legal system as it was regarded as a prerequisite for democratic social changes. A model of modern law-consciousnees was drawn from the analysis of the basic principles of private law of the continental West and used as a standard to measure the actual Japanese attitudes toward law revealed in their daily conducts, regarding family relations, for instance. Then the concept was applied to the litigious behaviour of the Japanese who lacked, according to Kawashima, the idea that each individual is equal and entitled to press for the realisation of his own rights guaranteed by law. Later this theory came to be criticized for its one-sidedness, and other factors than law-consciousness such as the defects on the side of legal institutions, were put forward to explain the infrequent use of courts and lawyers in the cases of dispute. As to the transformation of law-consciousness of the Japanese, the author points to the recent discussions, lively conducted not only by law professors, but also by people involved with the legal practice such as business contracts both national and international, which, contrary to Kawashima's prediction, increasingly stress the persistence of the peculiarly Japanese ways of handling legal affairs. The paper is closed with a call for continuation of the discussion more on the base of empirical material and capable of cumulative theoretical advancement.

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The Japanese "law-consciousness" has been a very important subject in the modern sociology of law in Japan, because a serious contradiction has been found between the actual law-consciousness and the ideal one which was assumed when Japanese positive law was enacted according to the models of Europe and the United States since Meiji era.
This article intends to explore the origin of the Japanese law-consciousness. It has been argued that the law-consciousness is closely related to the retarded modernization. However, it should be reexamined, because the consciousness is still existent, despite the fact that Japanese society has been modernized for many years. My argument is that the Japanese law-consciousness was created in the Edo era and was not easily changed. The consciousness conformed to the positive law of Tokugawa Japan, and the latter had a peculiar character that was also different from that of premodern Europe as the origin of both modern positive law and modern law-consciousness.

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A. "Constitutional consciousness" of the people is an essential factor of the modern constitutional phenomena, which may decide the overall direction of constitutional politics. Then, one should use-leastwise at the beginning of the research-the concept of "constitutional consciousness" in its widest meaning, in order to have a broad view of the multifarious aspects of the constitution.
B. The chief aim of my investigation of the "constitutional consciousness" of the people is twofold: 1) (in theoretical concern) to analyze the mutual relationship between the people's consciousness and the socio-political functions of the constitutional law, and 2) (in practical dimension) to recognize and estimate the actual condition of the Japanese Constitution.
C. For the above mentioned purpose the narrow concept of the legal consciousness cannot be useful; one must continue efforts to grasp and analyze the complex of the people's cognition and volition, will and feeling, ethos and pathos, even passion and apathy on all constitutional matters. Only through those efforts one can approach the comprehensive recognition of the "living constitution".

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1) Social class and claim-consciousness
2) Claim-consciousness and interest consciousness
3) Claim-consciousness in contract
4) Changes in claim-consciousness
5) Legal formalism versus legal informalism

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1) During the pre-war period in Japan, the characteristic industrial relations system with the life-time employment system and the seniority wage system etc. was built up widely among the large enterprises. It obstructed not only the organization of workers, but also the development of labour legislation. The number of organized workers was small and the influence of the trade unionism was very limited. Under these circumstances, the right consciousness of workers was forced to stay very weak.
2) After World War II, the constitution of Japan guaranteed the worker's fundamental rights and a modern labour law system was introduced. They promoted the rapid development of the trade union movement and the modernization of the industrial relations in Japan. However, since 1948-9, the influence of the trade unionism declined under the changing political circumstances, and the reorganization of pre-war industrial relations in large enterprises gradually increased. Enterprise unionism was widely spread in Japanese industry. At least before 1960, the distinctive characteristic of the consciousness of the organized workers was to be found in their dual loyalites to both the enterprises and to the trade unions.
3) The extremely rapid development of the economy during the 1960's and the 1970's changed the industrial structure and invited many changes in the state of employment, including the improvement of the workers' income level and the trends towards higher education in the younger generation. The consciousness of workers who enjoyed the fruit of economic growth has also been markedly changed. Now many organized workers are concerned not only about the wage increases, but also the enrichment of their working life.
Nevertheless, it is worthy to note that the awakening of their right-conscionsness has not been so keen. This fact appears to be connected with the "Japanese industrial relations" and the new trends of trade union movement among the large enterprises concentrating their energy upon the promotion of the productivity and collective bargaining on wage problems at enterprise level. It means that the opportunity for trade union members to take part in union activities is declining and they are forced to be indifferent to their individual rights.

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In this report, taking up the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the large-scale industrial complex development of East Tomakomai, we investigate the characteristics and problems of the decision-making process.
Examining the progress of the EIA of this development, we can point out two characteristics. One is that the types of the decision-making process have changed; the first process is that of making different opinions come to an understanding, the second is the process of persuading the inhabitants by the government of Hokkaido, the third is the process for the government of Hokkaido to make decision about the environmental problems under the EIA ordinance of Hokkaido. It can be said that through this change the inhabitants have lost their positive position in the decision-making process about the environmental problems. The other characteristic is the amendment of the development plan. The original master plan has been replaced by another plan because of the environmental problems. But this does not mean that they have given up their first plan, but that they have made smaller the scale of the plan and have established a realistic goal.
Considering these characteristics, we point out the problems of the EIA for this development. This first is that, as the present plan is not final, the validity of the present EIA is limited. The second is that, because of the first problem, we find it necessary to evaluate it again, but that it is doubtful wether the opinions of the inhabitants are completely reflected under the present system of the ordinance.

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1. Present state Farm lands of whole village communities in our country have declined since the Meiji Period. At present 6341 villages have such lands. They exist in all prefectures. They perform a function of supporting village communities or diversifying the risks of farming. The legal rights to these lands are not co-ownership. In our opinion, they are common of farm land.
2. History Japan put forward various codifications according to western principles in the early and middle Meiji Period. In the process of the civil codification the Japanese legislature and judicial education intended to accept European legal ideas. There were provisions on co-ownership which admitted each coowners share and his right to demand partition of thing in the draft of the civil code, and these provisions have been in force from 1898 until the present day. But we have found many decisions of the Supreme Court which recognized peculiar properties of whole village communities and denyed each villager's share till about 1890. This report states the relationships of such decisions and village circumstances at that time.

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Post Reversion laws have authorized the tentative use of lands held by U.S. Forces for the continued operation of their bases.
The question is whether the concentration of 53% of these bases in Okinawa resulting from this requisition is reasonable and justified.

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We have studied how the university students' understandings of the Constitution of Japan form and have recognized the important role played by education through the normal course of high school.
We have found the following facts:
(1) As for the Tenno (the Emperor) system, most students have no special interests in it. They cannot, perhaps partly because of this, understand the system theoretically, that is, from the viewpoint of the principles of the Constitution. Therefore, we must point out that university students accept the actual situation as regards the Tenno system.
(2) As for the Peace problems, education as regards the real aim of the article 9 of the Constitution of Japan, as well as that of introductory provisions, has affected students greatly. But we must point out that the real nature of "the Self-Defence Force" (so called "Jiei-Tai") seems to be beyond their understandings.
(3) As for the fundamental rights, education assumed a greater role towards the formation of university students' understandings. Since they understand well the reality of protection of these fundamental rights, they always seem to have great concern with current problems of human rights and have strong interest in people's present sense or attitude towards those human rights.
(4) As for the Governmental Institutions, we could safely assume the same tendencies as we have mentioned above. But their self recognition as a sovereign people seems to be beyond the accessibility of education in the Constitutional Law.
Therefore we would be able to indicate the following suppositions.
(1) Education has made a great contribution at least to the formation of the university students' understandings of the Constitution of Japan, particularly as regards their understandings what the real problems of Peace and Rights are. We could probably say that university students' concerns are still in the actual political or social problems.
(2) However, we must accept the real situation, that is, for all the education in the Constitution, the university students have no substantial understandings of it, not to mention the lack of their understanding of the theoretical problems as regards the Constitution.
(3) Still more, we must accept the real situation of the educations of the Constitution, that is, they do not recognize the need for their actual movement towards the realization of their rights and those for their participation in politics in our country.
Therefore we must claim the importance of education in the Constitution of Japan again. Perhaps we will be able to claim the importance of education in university as well as that through the normal course of high school.

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Generally speaking in scientific methodology and epistemology, the concept of objectivity is understood as that it indicates the object which exists outside and independent of man.
Only by so doing, can proof by the scientific concept be obtained.
But as discussed in my paper, in the study of the method of law sociology, this problem has not yet been solved completely.

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The Special Law for Conservation of the Environment of the Seto Inland Sea (Act No. 68, 1978) provides that the following measures should be taken for conservation and restoration of the Seto Inland Sea; 1. Establishment of the Central Basic Program and the Prefectural Programs; 2. Permission System for Construction of Specific Facilities; 3. Establishment of effluent standards which are designed to reduce the gross COD load of industrial, household and the other waste water by 7.4% from 1386tons/day in 1979 to 1238tons/day by 1984; 4. Preventive measures against Red Tide-Reduction of phosphorus; 5. Preservation of the natural strands; 6. Considerations for environment preservation in reclamation projects.
In this article the author gives a brief, but critical analysis of this statute and points out some of the difficulties of its present state. This will show that the measures for environment conservation in Japan have increasingly receded in recent years.

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The purpose of this paper is not to examine the Supreme Count Decision in in the Osaka International Airport Case itself, but to offer a perspective of the action of environmental disruption.
In the first section, I have proposed to divide the action of environmental disruption into three forms, i. e. action for damage, action for injunction after environmental injury occurred, action for injunction before environmental injury comes and insisted on the urgent question and subject in each action.
In the second, I have indicated, on the annexed paper distributed to the meeting, the character and subject of actions of environmental disruption in and around Seto Inland Sea.

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Since 1978 the inhabitants around the Kaita-Bay have brought in a lawsuit in the Hiroshima district court against Hiroshima Prefecture as a local public body for the invalidation of the reclamation licence.
In this lawsuit the point of law at issue is "standing to sue" on the litigant's side. Consequently the litigant claims the Customary Right of Effluence in Reclamation Act §5(4) (Act No. 57, 1921) and endeavours at present to show its socio-legal grounds. The grounds are as follows: 1) The reclaimed (by drainage) land is a so-called "Zero-meter area", therefore it is of decisive importance to secure the drainage of this area; 2) The lagislative intent of the reclamation Act lies as well in securing the effluence of the formerly reclaimed land; 3) The area where the litigant lives is likewise reclaimed land.
When this assertation is acknowledged as a well-grounded one, it will be very meaningful, as the experiences of the innabitants are made use of in granting licensces for reclaiming operations.

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