Japanese Contract And Anti-trust Law

This book is about Japanese contract law and anti-trust law and how they are used to protect distributors from unilateral terminations of distribution agreements. There have been significant pressures both to lower prices and restructure distribution channels in Japan which have strained many distribution agreements, and this book provides a detailed analysis of famous legal termination cases during the 1990s in the Japanese luxury cosmetics distribution system.

Little has been written on Japanese contract law and anti-trust law in Western languages. This book describes the role of this law in protecting the distributor against unilateral terminations of distribution agreements. There have been significant pressures both to lower prices and restructure distribution channels in Japan which have strained many distribution agreements. This volume, based primarily on Japanese language legal material, not only involves a study of applicable black-letter law, but also a sociological study of its application in practice. Detailed analysis has been made in particular of famous legal termination cases during the 1990s in the Japanese luxury cosmetics distribution system which generated influential decisions by the higher courts and the Fair Trade Commission, providing new insights into whether or not there are distinct Japanese attitudes towards contracts. Review: 'Japanese Contract is a wonderful book. It is the first major study in English that integrates doctrinal and empirical analysis of contemporary contract law in Japan...It is well worth reading and stands as a commendable model for what students following William Visser'T Hooft should aim for - The Australian Journal of Asian Law 'Like all good theses on Japanese law, this goes above and beyond the pure representation and offers to the reader much more than could be deduced from comparable Japanese sources.' - Rabels Zeitchreift fur auslandisches und internationales Privatrecht