Japanese Law in Context invites students to look inside Japanese law. The purpose of this course is to go beyond a mere description of the 'external' contours of the Japanese legal system and explore the 'internal' workings of the system. The course is divided thematically into issues of the 'who', 'what', 'where', 'when', 'why' and 'how' of Japanese law. Thus, the course covers: the reasons for engaging with the Japanese legal system, including the economic, political and cultural rationales (the why); where to locate Japanese law, ie, as part of comparative law, the 'new' Asian law or Japanese studies (the where); the structure, institutions and classification of the legal system (the what); the various methodologies that may be adopted in analysing Japanese law (the how); Japanese legal history and historiography (the when); and the major theoretical positions on Japanese law and their advocates (the who). The course concludes with a case study on a major contemporary issue in Japanese law - eg, product liability, administrative law reform or sexual harassment, depending on student interest - in which students will be encouraged to apply these contextual factors to evaluate the impact of that issue on Japanese society.