What kind of employment did those who repeatedly failed the bar exam find afterwards?

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菊間千乃

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I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”(Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多(がらくた)帳) in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.

So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.

It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.

It should be noted that haiku and waka (Japanese short fixed form poems) are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.

If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.

I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.

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As you all know, the “bar exam” is “a national examination to grant national qualifications to become a judge, prosecutor, or lawyer (legal qualification). It is said to be one of the most difficult national examinations.

I graduated from the Faculty of Law, but gave up the path to become a legal professional as soon as possible and became a salaried worker. Nowadays, with the new bar exam system and the establishment of “law schools” in universities across Japan, it may be somewhat easier to pass the bar exam compared to the old system.

For reference, in 2008, the pass rate was 29.11%, the youngest was 19 years old, the oldest was 68 years old, and the average age was 28.8 years old. For reference, in 2009, the percentages were 25.86%, 21 years old, 71 years old, and 28.8 years old, respectively.

The new bar exam has a limit on the number of years to take the exam, “within five years of completion of the law school program or passing the preliminary examination,” and a limit of five times to take the exam, while the old bar exam had no limit on the number of times to take the exam.

So it seems that some people took the bar exam dozens of times, were repeatedly unsuccessful, and ended up taking the exam with their sons. I have heard that one such person even took his own life on the day of the examination.

I think they must have felt hopeless from the fear that they might not make it again this year, as they had been inconveniencing their families during their long years of studying for the exam without a job (or earning a small income from a part-time job).

If he had become an ordinary salaryman, he would have been able to play an active role in society to a certain extent, but I think this is the result of his continuing to live a life of a ronin without having made up his mind to “give up the bar exam”.

In this sense, I think it is reasonable that the new bar exam has set a limit on the number of years and number of times one can take the exam. The aim is to make effective use of excellent human resources in society.

So what happened to those who failed the bar exam?

1.Judicial scriveners and administrative scriveners

One is a person who has found a way to lower the ranks and find a way to work in national qualifications such as “judicial scriveners” and “administrative scriveners. The legal knowledge accumulated in studying for the bar exam is useful.

2.National and local public officials.

The other is someone who has set his/her sights on becoming a “civil servant”. National and local civil servants, and some are “court clerks”.

3.Assisting Attorneys at Law Firms and Legal Departments of Private Companies

Next is private companies, such as assisting attorneys at “law firms” or working in the “general affairs department” or “legal affairs department” of general private companies. The legal knowledge accumulated through studying for the bar exam is far more advanced and in-depth than that of ordinary salaried workers, which will come in handy these days when “compliance observance” has become more important.

Some people continued their studies while working there and continued to challenge the bar exam.

4.Politicians

This is a rare case, such as when the father is a member of the Diet or a local legislator, but an example that falls under this category is Ichiro Ozawa, a member of the House of Representatives of the National Democratic Party of Japan.

He graduated from Keio University’s Faculty of Economics in 1967 and entered the Nihon University Graduate School of Law, where he studied to become a lawyer.

His father, Saeki Ozawa (1898-1968), was a prominent politician who graduated from Nihon University College of Law (night school), became a lawyer, and served 10 terms in the House of Representatives.

However, when his father died suddenly of heart failure in 1968 at the age of 69, he gave up his dream of becoming a lawyer and ran for the House of Representatives in 1969, winning at the young age of 27.

I am not sure how many times he took the bar exam, but this is a typical example of how strong a person with “the ground, the sign, and the bag” is if he wants to be a politician.

I think it is very difficult for those who do not have “the ground, the sign, and the bag” to become a politician, no matter how hard they try.

5.Mid-career entry into a general company as a full-time employee

The most common way to become a salaried employee is to join a general company mid-career, which has nothing to do with law.

6.Temporary and Part-Time Workers

In the current employment situation, it is not so easy to become a “full-time” employee. And if you are older, it will become more difficult.

Then you have no choice but to become a temporary or part-time worker.

It is important to “pursue your dreams” and “never give up,” but just as it is difficult for athletes, entertainers, and politicians to decide to “retire,” it is also quite difficult to decide where to “give up” on the bar exam.

However, it is also tragic that a person has more ability than ordinary people, and yet he or she has to spend the rest of his or her life as a “bar exam ronin”.

I think that if you are young enough, it is not a dream to be hired in the legal department of a company even if you have not passed the bar exam, but I feel that it becomes more difficult after the age of 30.

I have heard that some people have become cab drivers with a Class 2 driver’s license or truck drivers with a large license.

It is up to the individual to decide whether he or she wants to devote the rest of his or her life to a dream or to give up at an appropriate point in time, but please do not end up a dreamer or become Don Quixote.

It is surprisingly difficult to correctly assess one’s current abilities. Even if you are not a particularly overconfident person, you tend to overestimate your abilities, which can lead to self-inflation.

I think it may be necessary to consult with your wife, other family members, or trusted friends, and take their frank advice with an open mind and graceful heart.

Also, as an aside, there is a slightly disturbing story that “one out of 7.5 people who pass the bar exam cannot get a job at a law firm. This seems to be due to the fact that Japanese society is not as “litigious” as the U.S., so even if the number of successful applicants increases under the new bar exam system, law firms do not have much room to accept new lawyers.


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