Financial Law Board (FLB)
Establishment of FLB
Deregulation, globalization, and technological innovations in the financial industry in recent years have accelerated the developments of new and innovative financial products. The lack of legal certainty, however, might impede the proper functioning of the Japanese financial market as the open, fair and internationally competitive market. In order to foster such developments, the legal certainty for these new products needs to be clarified, and the joint efforts between academics and practitioners are increasingly needed.
The FLB was therefore established in June 1998 by Japanese attorneys and scholars who specialize in financial law to solve the legal uncertainties in Japan of issues relating to the financial industry.
Purpose of FLB
The FLB aims to propose recommendations on specific legal issues, in respect of uncertainties that may cause practical difficulties in introducing new financial products and transactions. These recommendations include identifying the legal issues, demonstrating the legal interpretations, and advocating necessary legislative actions. Our goal is to reduce the degree of legal uncertainty as much as possible, and to enhance transparency of legal rules of the Japanese financial industry.
The proposals made by the FLB are available on its website (www.flb.gr.jp), in both English and Japanese.
Chairs of FLB
The chairs of the FLB are elected by its members. The current chairs since December 2015 are Prof. Seiichi Yamada (Professor of Law, Kobe University) and Mr. Kunihiko Morishita (Attorney at Law, Anderson Mori & Tomotsune).
Secretariat
The Bank of Japan serves as the FLB Secretariat.