How a Civil Action Proceeds in Japan｜The Stages, the Timescale and the Court Costs

Negotiation with a Japanese counterparty has failed and proceedings in a Japanese court can no longer be avoided. The questions that follow are always the same three: what actually happens, how long will it take, and what will it cost. Japanese civil procedure has a rhythm of its own. It is a sequence of written exchanges punctuated by short hearings rather than the continuous trial familiar in common law jurisdictions, and the case is often decided long before anyone stands up to speak. What follows is an outline under Japanese law of the first instance, the timescale, the costs, and the points that arise when one party sits outside Japan.

Contents

Commencing the action: the statement of claim, jurisdiction and the filing fee
The first hearing, the exchange of submissions and the arrangement of issues
Examination of evidence and the court’s recommendation of settlement
Judgment and appeal
How long it takes and what it costs
Points peculiar to a party outside Japan, and the move online
In closing
How to contact us

Commencing the action: the statement of claim, jurisdiction and the filing fee

An action begins with the filing of a statement of claim (sojo) setting out the parties, the relief sought and the facts relied on, accompanied by copies of the principal documents — the contract, the invoices, the correspondence. Jurisdiction lies as a rule with the court for the defendant’s domicile or principal office; because a monetary debt is in principle payable at the creditor’s place, the creditor’s own court is frequently available as well, and an exclusive jurisdiction clause in the contract will be given effect. Claims of up to 1,400,000 yen belong to the Summary Court, larger claims to the District Court. The filing fee is paid in revenue stamps affixed to the statement of claim, and a deposit of postage stamps for service is lodged at the same time.

The first hearing, the exchange of submissions and the arrangement of issues

Once the statement of claim has been served, the court fixes the first oral hearing, usually some four to six weeks after filing, and the defendant files an answer beforehand. If the claim is genuinely contested, hearings continue at intervals of roughly a month to six weeks, with each side filing briefs and documentary evidence and the area of dispute narrowing at each stage. Little of this is argued aloud: the substance is in the papers. When the disagreement has taken shape, the case is generally moved into a preparatory procedure for the arrangement of issues (soten seiri tetsuzuki), in which the court records what is admitted, identifies what is genuinely in dispute, and settles which evidence will be examined.

Examination of evidence and the court’s recommendation of settlement

When the issues have been arranged, the disputed facts are proved by the examination of witnesses and of the parties themselves. Written statements are exchanged in advance, so the hearing itself is confined to what matters: the party calling the witness examines first, the other side then cross-examines, and it is common for several witnesses to be heard in a single day. The court may recommend a settlement at any stage, and characteristically does so twice — when the issues have been arranged, and again after the witnesses have been heard. A settlement recorded by the court has the same effect as a final judgment and may be enforced directly. A very large proportion of Japanese civil cases end this way; it is not a concession of weakness but a rational means of removing appeal risk and being paid sooner.

Judgment and appeal

Where no settlement is reached the court closes the oral argument and fixes a date for judgment, usually one to two months later. A judgment on a money claim will normally carry a declaration of provisional execution, so enforcement may begin before the judgment becomes final. A party dissatisfied with the first instance judgment may appeal to the High Court (koso) within two weeks of service of the written judgment. The appeal is usually disposed of in one or two hearings, and the court will very often try settlement once more at that point. A final appeal to the Supreme Court (jokoku) is available thereafter, but only on restricted grounds; it is not a rehearing of the facts.

How long it takes and what it costs

Timescales vary enormously from case to case, and the figures below are orders of magnitude rather than predictions. Where the defendant does not contest the claim or does not appear, the matter may finish within a few months. Where the claim is genuinely disputed and passes through the arrangement of issues, the first instance commonly runs to something in the order of a year. Where several witnesses must be heard, or an expert appointed, it may take appreciably longer, and any appeal is additional to all of this.

As to costs, the filing fee is calculated by reference to the value of the claim: roughly 10,000 yen on a claim of 1,000,000 yen, and roughly 50,000 yen on a claim of 10,000,000 yen. To that are added the postage deposit, a matter of several thousand yen, and the travel expenses and daily allowance of any witness who attends. One point deserves emphasis for readers from jurisdictions where costs follow the event: in Japan the losing party does not, as a rule, bear the winner’s lawyers’ fees. Each side pays its own counsel. The exception is a claim in tort, where in practice a sum in the order of ten per cent of the amount awarded may be recovered as part of the damages. What the judgment allocates as “court costs” means the statutory items — the filing fee, the postage — and not attorney remuneration.

Points peculiar to a party outside Japan, and the move online

Where the defendant is abroad, the statement of claim must be served through diplomatic channels or under the Hague Service Convention, and in practice this routinely takes several months. It is the single largest cause of delay in cross-border cases, and it should be built into the timetable from the outset. Evidence in a foreign language must be accompanied by a Japanese translation. Where the claimant has no domicile, office or place of business in Japan, the court may on the defendant’s application order the claimant to provide security for the costs of the action, and an action is dismissed if the order is not complied with — so this too belongs in the budget from the start. Finally, a Japanese judgment to be enforced abroad, or a foreign judgment to be enforced in Japan, must pass through the receiving country’s own procedure for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments; in Japan that means obtaining an execution judgment from the court. Where to sue is therefore a question best answered by reasoning backwards from where the assets are.

The procedure is meanwhile moving online. Web conferencing has been in wide use for issue-arrangement hearings for several years, and following the 2022 amendment of the Code of Civil Procedure the electronic filing of submissions and the conduct of hearings online have been extended in stages. A party abroad increasingly need not travel to Japan for every hearing, although the examination of witnesses is still conducted in person as a rule.

In closing

Litigation in Japan is not quick, but it is unusually predictable: when each submission falls due, when the evidence will be heard, when settlement is likely to be raised — all of this can be mapped at the outset. Understanding the sequence early, and checking what assets the defendant actually holds before committing to it, is what prevents the outcome every foreign claimant fears: a judgment that cannot be turned into money. We are equally glad to work through the creditor’s own counsel abroad.

How to contact us

Telephone 03-6435-8418 within Japan, or +81-3-6435-8418 from overseas. Lines are open from 08:00 to 24:00 Japan time, including Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Enquiries are also received at any hour through the form on this site.

M&A Partners Law Office LPC　Katsuhiro Tsuchiya, Representative Attorney-at-Law (Tokyo Bar Association, Registration No. 26775)　17F Mori Trust Shiroyama Trust Tower, 4-3-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

This article is a general explanation based on the laws and practice of Japan as at August 2026 (Reiwa 8). The outcome of any particular matter depends on its own facts, and no specific result is guaranteed.

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