Law as it has developed in Japan as a consequence of the combination of two cultural and legal traditions, one indigenous Japanese, the other Western.
In the 8th century Japan borrowed and adapted the legal system of the Chinese Tang dynasty . With the rise of the warrior class, clan codes governing the behaviour and actions of warrior families were developed. After the Meiji Restoration (1868), Japan began to borrow heavily from European legal systems, particularly the German Civil Code . After World War II, largely as a result of the country's occupation by the U.S. military and later contacts with U.S. legal scholars, Japan incorporated aspects of the U.S. legal system, including various civil procedures and elements of labour and business law. Traditional extralegal dispute-resolution methods remain strong, and litigation plays a less pervasive role than in the U.S.