In the wake of environmental disasters such as the mercury poisonings in Minamata in the 1950s, a culturalist view of Japan as being in the thrall of weak legal consciousness and consumerism has persisted. This volume contests that view by reassessing Japanese product liability law and practice in a global context, comparing it with law in the European Union, United States and Australia. The still-birth of product liability in the 1970s is contrasted with its rebirth in the late 1980s, and its pervasive impact throughout the 1990s is gauged at various levels, concluding that new processes are emerging in Japan, as in other complex industrialized democracies, which render product safety regulation more private and product liability more public. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.