Section 1: Life Conflict and Law-An introductory course for students who have not yet studied law

Through a class that provides students with an image of the legal profession through full use of their five senses and movements, we create a flexible general image ball of the practical legal profession in our students' minds. This general image ball is then augmented by legal provisions, legal concepts, judicially created doctrine, legal theory and legal principles, thus significantly advancing the speed and depth of learning.

Making full use of the educational rule of thumb introduced above, Life Conflict and Law is an introductory course in the Chuo Law School for first-year law students who have not studied law. The class features a mixture of lectures and workshops conducted by a team of four faculty members. The class aims to equip students with the habit of engaging in natural and independent thought and study.

This class consists of two courses: Civil Workshop and Criminal Workshop.

Courses related to civil law will be held in the following sequence using general classrooms, and will be linked to the core subject titled Basics of Civil Litigation Practice, a subject which is taken in sophomore year.

(1) Create a practical image of civil litigation proceedings by watching videos of civil litigation proceedings and taking lectures on each procedural scene
(2) Resolve video civil cases through simulated civil mediation (role play)
(3) Propose decisions for a video civil lawsuit (writing)
(4) Map the required facts (Civil Code) (small group discussion, map creation and presentation)

Courses related to criminal law will be held in the following sequence using the courtroom classrooms, and will be linked to the core subject titled Basics of Criminal Procedure Practice, a subject which is taken in sophomore year.

(1) Create a practical image of criminal trial procedures by watching videos of lay judge trial procedures and taking lectures
(2) Conduct simple mock lay judge trials (role play)
(3) Hold discussion and drafting in small groups with assigned roles of prosecutor, attorney, and judge (prosecutor's closing argument, attorney's closing argument, summary of judgment)
(4) Present the prosecutor's closing argument, attorney's closing argument, and summary of judgment in a mock court by each table

In this class, students who have not yet studied law (three-year course) join the students who have studied law (two-year course) from their sophomore year to help each other learn. However, the accumulation of legal knowledge and mastery of legal theories inevitably requires a considerable amount of study time.

On the other hand, by applying a certain level of ingenuity, acquiring an image of legal practice as a human activity can be realized in shorter time frame. By emphasizing such image training, this class serves as a bridge to learning in sophomore year.

The motto of this class is "Don't hesitate; jump right in!"

Section 2: Cultivating a legal mind

The main purpose of legal education is to train the legal mind.

At the core of the legal mind is legal reasoning. This is the ability to draw from the miscellaneous raw social facts that compose a dispute and to recognize facts with legal significance from information such as evidence (fact finding), to discover and apply legal norms (legal text, etc.) which are applicable to those facts (rule finding), and to drive solutions.

This ability is extremely difficult to obtain by studying texts on legal information. Therefore, I believe that it is indispensable to combine text-based learning with practical experience-based training in the legal profession. This training should be specific and possess narrative characteristics (criminal nature).

Section 3: Comments from students who have taken the class (representative comments/summaries)

"It is difficult to deepen understanding without imagining a specific situation."

In this class, students watch a DVD video on the flow of procedures in a civil lawsuit (filing of procedures → formation of argument → examination of evidence) for each step of procedures and attend related lectures. Taking this class enabled me to realistically imagine the practice of legal professionals (judge/attorney) in civil lawsuits. It's hard to imagine specifics only by studying textbooks. Through this class, I experienced legal proceedings in various cases by using civil lawsuit record materials and DVDs showing oral arguments to write judgment. I also learned what needs to be done in the case of a settlement. Looking back, I feel that imagining specific situations will help deepen understanding, especially when you are studying a field for the first time.

"The importance of being aware of 'how to utilize legal provisions in our daily lives.'"

In particular, when studying without having a clear image of the law and legal system, untrained students tend to just memorize basic books and articles. However, in this class, student relive knowledge and obtain a live experience of the law. Once such experience has been gained, students become able to think with an awareness of such real experience and feeling when handling other problems and fields. Acquiring such habits will be useful not only in preparing for the bar examination, but also for a subsequent career in the legal profession. As a specific method of re-living knowledge, we also role-played up to procedures for dispute resolution based on a realistic reproduction DVD of civil disputes and records of civil and criminal cases. In a lesson for visualizing the Civil Code, students created a Civil Code diagram that shows an image of mechanisms in the Civil Code, in order to clarify the principles underlying each system of the Civil Code. As a result, I now understand that one system can be created in line with overall principles which integrate various specific considerations. In fact, I am now able to ascertain the contents of basic textbooks and articles in a way which is closer to the actual dispute.

"Students learn the basics of law by studying legal thinking and experiencing practical on-site thinking."

In this class, by actually experiencing the drafting of judgments and participating in mock mediations, students gain an understanding of practical thinking; for example, what facts to emphasize in practice and how to structure laws. Also, at the beginning of the class, students are given the opportunity to organize the basic principles of law by themselves. Learning to properly organize principles that are indispensable in any legal subject also helped deepen my understanding when studying other subjects.

Section 4: Feedback to education in the Faculty of Law

It can be said that students taking introductory education in the Faculty of Law are in the same situation as the Law school students who have not studied law before, in that both of them have no experiences of studying law.

On the other hand, it is fully possible to process and provide feedback regarding the ingenuity of teaching materials and teaching methods in law school education for students who have not yet studied law, with the goal of adapting those materials and methods for use in the Faculty of Law in providing education for students who have not yet studied law. I believe that this feedback will be of significant assistance in improving the effectiveness of educational practice in the Faculty of Law.

Section 5: Reference literature

1. Life Conflict and Law-Development of Teaching Materials for Classes on Civil Law (Chuo Law Journal Vol. 17, No. 4; Shinichiro Toyama and Aoi Namaizawa)
2. Life Conflict and Law-Ingenuity in Introductory Education for Untrained Students: Criminal Edition (Chuo Law Journal Vol. 16, No. 4; Shinichiro Toyama, Joji Okumura, Hitoshi Murase, and Aoi Namaizawa)
3. Life Conflict and Law-Lay Judge Trial Workshop Class Development (Chuo Law Journal Vol. 12, No. 4; Shinichiro Toyama, Yoshio Suzuki, and Takao Nakayama)

Section 6: Archive of CHUO ONLINE articles by Professor Toyama

・Introduction to Dispute Resolution Studies
-Recommendations for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)-
https://yab.yomiuri.co.jp/adv/chuo/dy/research/20200717_en.php

・Determining an Algorithm for Compliance Aimed at Increasing Corporate Value
https://yab.yomiuri.co.jp/adv/chuo/dy/research/20190411.php

・Staircase to Adulthood
-Consideration to the Issue of the Lowering of Age of Majority (Article 4 of the Civil Code)-
https://yab.yomiuri.co.jp/adv/chuo/dy/research/20180719.html

・How to Survive in a Contractual Society
-The Great Heisei Civil Code Reform (Credits-Related Civil Code Amendments)-
https://yab.yomiuri.co.jp/adv/chuo/dy/research/20180322.html

・Happiness Equation for Workers
-From the Perspective of Compliance for Increasing Corporate Value-
https://yab.yomiuri.co.jp/adv/chuo/dy/research/20170622.html

・Scenes from Law School and Business School
https://yab.yomiuri.co.jp/adv/chuo/dy/education/20150129.html

・The Two Basic Laws of Life -Family Law and Labor Law-
https://yab.yomiuri.co.jp/adv/chuo/dy/opinion/20130401.html

Shinichiro Toyama
Professor, Chuo Law School, Member of Daiichi Tokyo Bar Association
Areas of Specialization: Corporate Compliance, Modern Contract Law, Tort and Compensation Law (traffic accidents, medical malpractice, nuclear accidents, etc.), Domestic Relations Case Procedure Act, Labor Law, Insolvency Proceeding Law, Financial Legal Affairs, Antitrust Law, Personal Information Protection Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Legal Economics

After graduating from the Department of Law in the Chuo University Faculty of Law in 1975, Shinichiro Toyama became a Specially Appointed Professor in the Chuo Law School in 2004. He has served as Professor in the Chuo Law School since 2014.
He is a member of the Advisory Board in the Chuo Graduate School of Strategic Management.
His major public positions include a member of a special committee of the Dispute Reconciliation Committee for Nuclear Damage Compensation of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; a member of a special committee of the Dispute Reconciliation Committee of Construction Work of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; a dispute resolution member in the Dispute Reconciliation Committee for Housing of the Daiichi Tokyo Bar Association; a member of the Civil Conciliation Commissioners of the Supreme Court of Japan; a member of the Civil Rehabilitation Committee and the Individual Rehabilitation Committee of the Tokyo District Court; a director of the Japan Center for Settlement of Traffic Accident Disputes; (former) an assistant director of the Nichibenren Traffic Accident Consultation Center; a medical ADR arbitrator for the Tokyo San Bengoshikai and more.
His main publications and articles include Antitrust Law Useful for Daily Living, The World of Traffic Accident Civil Liability: Theory and Practice, Resolution of Individual Labor Disputes, Child Welfare and Joint Custody, JA Compliance: Creating a System for Preventing Misconduct, Construction Process Theory of the Model for a Compliance System Aimed at Increasing Corporate Value (Introduction) and more.

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