JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Hiroki Wakabayashi, Kenichi Sadaka and Kei Akagawa, Anderson Mori & Tomotsune
tion Act). In addition, until otherwise enacted, an arbitration agreement concluded on or after 1 March 2004, the subject of which constitutes individual labour-related disputes that may arise in the future, will be null and void (Article 4 of the supplemental provisions to the Arbitration Act). Further, an arbitration agreement concluded on or after 1 March 2004, the subject of which con- stitutes consumer disputes that may arise in the future, is effective, but can be cancelled by the consumer and is subject to other regulations (Article 3 of the supplemental provisions to the Arbitration Act). 13.3 Circumstances to Challenge an Arbitral Award If the arbitration was seated in Japan, the parties may file a petition with a Japanese court to set aside the arbitral award. The petition must be filed within three months from the date on which notice was given through the sending of a copy of the written arbitral award. The grounds for setting aside an arbitral award (Article 44 of the Arbitration Act) are identical in substance to those set forth in Article 34 of the UNCITRAL Model Law. 13.4 Procedure for Enforcing Domestic and Foreign Arbitration Article 46 of the Arbitration Act provides the same mechanism to enforce domestic and foreign arbitral awards. To enforce an arbitral award, the enforcing party must file a petition with a court for an execution order (meaning an order allowing civil execution based on an arbitral award). The court is required to make an execution order unless it finds grounds to refuse enforcement as set forth in Article 45(2) of the Arbitration Act, which are identical in substance to those set forth in Article 36 of the UNCITRAL Model Law. In addition, under the amendments
to the Arbitration Act which took effect on 1 April 2024, it has become possible for the court to issue, upon a petition from a party granted an order for interim measures in an arbitration, an enforcement approval order, such as one per- mitting civil enforcement based on the order for interim measures (new Article 47(1)(6)), unless the court finds grounds to refuse enforcement as set forth in the new Article 47(7)(8). 14. Outlook 14.1 Proposals for Dispute Resolution Reform Since June 2020, the Legislative Council has been deliberating over a reform of civil proce- dure utilising information technology. It aims to amend various laws concerning civil procedures to enable e-filing (ie, online court filing), e-case management (ie, online access to the court record) and e-courts (ie, web hearings). For this purpose, following the amendment of the CCP in May 2022, several civil procedure-related laws (eg, the Bankruptcy Law, the Civil Execution Act, etc) were amended in June 2023 and are set to become operational gradually over the next five years. The new amendment enables: • online submission of new cases and service of court documents; • attending court sessions via the internet or other telecommunication methods, like video or phone conferencing; and • online access to court records. However, it is not clarified whether or not (and to what extent) the new legislation allows indi- viduals located outside Japan to take part in proceedings online. In practice, the feasibility of such participation is likely to necessitate consid- erable further discussion.
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