Movements for Legislation for Electronic Bills of Lading in Japan have been discussed in this column in July 2022 and April 2023. The Working Group for Commercial Law (Relating to Bills of Lading and Others) of Legislative Council of the Ministry of Justice (chaired by Professor Tomotaka Fujita of University of Tokyo) adopted the Draft Outline Concerning Amendments of the Commercial Code (Relating to Bill of Lading and Others) and Others on 21 August 2024. General Assembly of Legislative Council (chaired by Professor Atsushi Omura of Gakushuin University) has then adopted it as it is as the Outline on 9 September 2024 to be presented to the Minister of Justice and made it public. It is expected that the Government will make preparations for legislation and perhaps a Bill to Amend the Commercial Code and Others in accordance with the Outline will be presented to the Diet, legislative body of Japan, in due course.
In the original Japanese, please refer to (Japanese link 1) for the Outline and (Japanese link 2) for the meetings minutes and other papers of Working Group; and in English translations prepared by Mr. Akiyoshi Ikeyama of our corporation, please refer to (English 1) for the Outline, (English 2) for the Outline with footnotes by Mr. Ikeyama and (English 3) for the MLETR Comparison Table. The MLETR Comparison Table is a comparison table between the Outline and MLETR (Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records) prepared by the Ministry of Justice in the course of deliberations by the Working Group. It is Reference Material No. 16-3 found in the papers for 16th meeting of the Working Group.
Although Mr. Ikeyama was participating in deliberations in the Working Group, please note that English translations of the Outline and the Comparison Table with MLETR as well as footnotes to the Outline are purely his personal work and not related to the Working Group, the Legislative Council or any other public institutions, or the firm or any other organizations or bodies he has relation with or belongs to.