- Pro Bono
- Community
- DE&I
Mock trial court held by the Rotary Club of Tokyo Yamanote, for elementary and junior high school students
- Nishimura & Asahi's legal education project
Opportunity and significance of undertaking the mock trial as a Pro Bono project
Mariko Mimura Attorney at Law
The Rotary Club of Tokyo Yamanote holds an annual event called "Togethers" to support the disabled, and in June 2023, for the first time, the club held a work experience event for elementary and junior high school students belonging to orphanages, and a legal team consisting of lawyers from the club set up a mock trial booth.
Pro Bono legal education team in Nishimura & Asahi sympathized with the Rotary Club of Tokyo Yamanote's philosophy and efforts to provide fair educational opportunities through this event, and decided to participate in this event as a Pro Bono activity to provide full support in the hope of providing children with a diverse vision of the future.
Outline of the mock trial
For this event, of the subject matter was Kumao-kun, a resident of an animal village, who was tricked into buying fake jewelry by Kitsune-kun, and we conducted a mock trial in order to teach children about real lawsuits, and to the actual process involved.
The children representing the plaintiff’s attorneys used hints titled "help cards" along with free-thinking interrogations to hunt down the defendant (played by us), while the children representing the judge looked at the interrogations and the verification by the expert and decided by consensus which claim was correct.
mock court as an appraiser of jewelry
Comments from Rotary members
Satoshi Aoki Attorney at Law
The purpose of the mock trial was to help the children understand the work of legal professionals and realize that law is useful in life. Thanks to the cooperation of Mimura Esq. and the Nishimura & Asahi legal education team, we were able to implement a substantial project that was well received by the children and orphanages staff.
Comments from the lawyer who handled the mock trial
We were wondering how we could make seemingly difficult topics such as the legal profession, trials, and the law interesting to children of all ages, and we all worked together to come up with the scenario. But up until the day of the event, we were worried about how many children would show up, whether the children would get bored before they finished it, or what if we could not get discussions going.
In the end, many more children participated than we had expected, and we were very happy to see them leave with smiles on their faces, with open and sharp opinions that we had never expected. I am very grateful to have been involved in this project.
General comments
Mihoko Fukuzawa Attorney at Law
In this mock trial, the children's lively discussions were far beyond our imagination, with sharp questions and comments based on detailed observations that rivaled those of adults. I would be happy if the experience of the mock trial on this day could be an opportunity for people to feel closer to the legal profession and the trial system.
Member
Mihoko has extensive experience advising clients on matters relating to South-East Asian countries, especially Vietnam. Her practice also focuses on mergers & acquisitions and other corporate matters, including corporate law, labor law and compliance matters.
Mariko advises life sciences and technology companies regarding comprehensive matters including regulatory matters, compliance, M&A and licensing throughout the R&D stage to distribution, based on her extensive experience serving as part of the management team of global pharmaceutical companies.