There is a growing awareness among Japanese corporate legal departments of arbitration as a means to settle cross-border commercial disputes. The legal foundation has been laid for international commercial arbitration in Japan, Japanese courts are friendly to arbitration, and arbitration has received support from the government since 2017. Yet, Japan is rarely chosen as a place of arbitration. In this lecture, Professor Hiroshi Oda explores the current state of the arbitral regime in Japan, including some recent court cases, the challenges, and obstacles to it being designated as a seat of arbitration.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Hiroshi Oda served as a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration (2003-2016); He is currently a professor at Waseda University; Sir Ernest Satow Professor of Japanese Law Studies at University College London; and Attorney at law, Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu, Japan.