The U.S. has 389 while Japan has 29. These are the numbers of legal professionals for every 100,000 people. So the U.S. figure is 13 times that of the Japan figure. It has long been pointed out that Japan has few lawyers compared with Western countries, so the judicial system has been subject to reforms aimed at increasing the quantity and quality of lawyers, yet the gap remains large. Moreover, 93% of law schools in Japan have fewer students enrolled than their quotas. Reforms to raise the competitiveness of Japan’s legal profession are essential.