Critics have charged for years that government policies deliberately aimed at discouraging the public from resorting to the courts to resolve disputes have also worked to artificially limit the number of lawyers and judges in this country. Now, in a welcome if belated step aimed at increasing the number of people in the legal profession, the Justice Ministry is reportedly considering a plan to introduce graduate schools of law in Japan's leading universities. The move is part of an overall project designed to reform the nation's legal system.

Before the ministry is congratulated on its timely action, however, it must be recognized that both the political and business worlds have long been calling for a review of the way in which universities here conduct instruction in the law. Private citizens and groups advocating their rights have also increasingly challenged a system that makes litigation so expensive and time-consuming. Part of the problem stems from the practice at tradition-heavy universities of emphasizing the law strictly as an academic subject, even at the graduate-school level, instead of increasing the number of practicing lawyers.

It is doubtless only a coincidence, but news of the Justice Ministry plan circulated within hours of a different report noting that nearly 80 percent of the deans at national universities responded in a recent survey that the academic levels of Japanese university students have fallen. A commonly cited example was the general inability of students to engage in logical thinking and to express their thoughts with clarity. The experts from whom ministry officials are seeking advice and guidance need to bear these criticisms in mind as they debate the plan to introduce graduate law schools similar to the special three-year courses offered by U.S. law schools.