A Practical Guide to Depositions in Japan: Make a Plan and Be Flexible

American Bar Association
July.03.2019

You need to take or defend the deposition of a witness in Japan. Perhaps the witness is a corporate custodian or a key executive of a party. For whatever reason—the witness’s inability to travel, discovery rules, or simple agreement of the parties—the deposition is taking place in Japan. Now what? We offer the following practical observations and suggestions to make your own experience smoother, whether you are taking or defending a deposition in Japan. We recently lived through this, in the course of presenting witnesses for four days of depositions in Japan.

An earlier version of this article appeared in Law360.