Abstract

The Japanese law of torts originally comprised various elements imported from different countries. These elements constituted the texts of the 1898 Civil Code, and were thus much elaborated upon by the courts. In this chapter, the marked characteristics of the Japanese law of torts are examined from two perspectives: the mixed nature of the law, on the one hand, and some unique developments which may constitute a certain originality of Japanese tort law in comparative aspects, on the other. These two features are both related to how the modernisation of law was carried out in Japan since the mid-nineteenth century.