Eisaku Yokoyama
August 30, 2018Mr. Yokoyama is a professor and government attorney in charge of international cooperation activities at the Ministry of Justice in Japan. He received a Master of Laws degree from Tohoku National University. Mr. Yokoyama has been instrumental in the implementation of policies of law-related education in Japan. Although, Japan is considered one of the safest countries in the world, an increase in crime rates in 2003 has led the government to design a program for law-related education, which sought to create teaching and training materials for primary school students and teachers. Yet without parents and other adults on board, school-level education was found to be inadequate. With the assistance from media outlets in developing law-related activities for adults, law-related education has been accepted by Japanese citizens and a culture of lawfulness now permeates society. In 2015, the number of criminal cases was the lowest since 1945.