JFBA VISITING SCHOLARS PROGRAM 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE
May 21, 2010, Tokyo, Japan
[COPY OF PROGRAM] [COPY OF REPORT]
The Sho Sato Program in Japanese and US Law and the Japan Federation of Bar Association (JFBA) held an invitational conference in Tokyo, Japan to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the JFBA Visiting Scholars Program. For the past ten years, the Sho Sato Program and the JFBA have overseen the program in which an attorney from Japan spends a one-year residence of study and research at UC Berkeley. Former scholars have explored the topics of criminal law and criminal procedure in the United States; human rights protection; the cooperative relationship between private assistance organizations and lawyers for crime victims; attorney advocacy and issues of mental health care and assistance for crime victims; the practice of information disclosure; and the theory and practice of privacy.
The first part of the conference focused on the subject of compensation issues stemming from World War II, and featured a keynote speech by Professor Harry Scheiber, Director of the Sho Sato Program, on the internment of Japanese-Americans in the United States during the war. Fumio Takemura of the Takemura Law Office closed the session with a talk on the Japanese government’s liability for human rights violation during WWII.
The second part commemorated the Visiting Scholars Program with presentations by former participants on what they learned at Berkeley and how they put it into practice upon their return to Japan. Speakers included Azusa Shidara, Director, Civil Legal Aid Division of Japan Legal Support Center (visiting scholar in 2000-2001) and Hiroshi Kawatsu, Director, JFBA Research Office for Judicial Reform (visiting scholar in 2003-2004).