The Path to the Legal Professions (Shigyō)

There are two main routes to eligibility for the bar exam: completing law school (hoka daigakuin), or passing the preliminary bar exam (yobi shiken). A notable feature is that the preliminary bar exam route has no eligibility restrictions.

In Reiwa 6 (2024), the overall bar exam pass rate was 42.1%, but by route there was a large gap: 92.8% for the preliminary bar exam route versus 34.8% for the law school route. This reflects the high caliber of those who pass the preliminary bar exam.

The preliminary bar exam requires passing all three stages — short-answer, essay, and oral — and the final pass rate is an extremely low 3.6% or so (Reiwa 5). It is considered one of the toughest gateways to the bar exam.

The bar exam is a two-stage exam consisting of a short-answer exam and an essay exam, conducted intensively over 4 days.

The bar exam covers a wide range of legal subjects centered on public law (constitutional law, administrative law), civil law (civil code, commercial law, civil procedure law), and criminal law (criminal code, criminal procedure law), plus an elective subject.

Although difficulty branches depending on the eligibility route taken, the bar exam / preliminary bar exam system as a whole is positioned as the most difficult. In particular, the preliminary bar exam's final pass rate of 3.6% is strikingly low compared to the other licensed professions.

Led by the bar exam / preliminary bar exam, followed by the judicial scrivener and patent attorney exams (both about 3,000 hours), the tax accountant exam (2,000-4,000 hours), and the sharoshi exam (about 1,000 hours), the administrative scrivener exam (about 800 hours, pass rate 10-15%) is considered the most approachable of the group — though it remains a tough exam where roughly "1 in 10" candidates pass.

The administrative scrivener exam is held just once a year as a single written exam combining multiple-choice and written-answer questions, with no oral exam. Unlike the judicial scrivener or patent attorney exams, it is not a multi-stage exam.

The administrative scrivener exam is broadly made up of two subject groups: legal subjects (basic legal studies, constitutional law, administrative law, civil law, commercial law) and general knowledge subjects (general knowledge, administrative scrivener law-related topics, information/communication and personal data protection, and reading comprehension).

The 2025 administrative scrivener exam pass rate was 14.54%. It has typically stayed in the 10-15% range in recent years, making it a tough qualification where roughly "1 in 10" candidates pass.

A representative task exclusive to administrative scriveners is preparing documents such as permit/license applications submitted to government offices. Litigation representation is exclusive to lawyers, registration to judicial scriveners, and tax filing representation to tax accountants.

The administrative scrivener exam's guideline study time is roughly 800 hours, making it relatively approachable among the 6 legal professional qualifications. Even so, it remains a difficult exam with a pass rate in the 10-15% range.

Frequently tested types of declaration of intent in civil law include mental reservation, false declaration (collusive false declaration), mistake, fraud, and duress. A registration certificate (toukisumishou) is a document related to real estate registration, not a type of declaration of intent.

The judicial scrivener exam has a two-stage format: a written exam (70 multiple-choice questions + 2 written-answer questions), followed by an oral exam for those who pass it. In practice, the outcome is largely decided by the written exam.

The judicial scrivener exam's 4 core subjects — civil law, real estate registration law, commercial law (corporate law), and commercial registration law — account for about 85% of the points. Questions are also drawn from a total of 11 subjects, including constitutional law, criminal law, civil procedure law, deposit law, civil execution law, civil preservation law, and the judicial scrivener act.

The 2025 judicial scrivener exam pass rate was 5.21%. It has generally stayed in the 4-5% range in recent years, making it one of the toughest national qualifications — said to be on par with lawyers and certified public accountants in terms of difficulty (roughly hensachi 76).

A representative task for judicial scriveners is acting as an agent for real estate and commercial registration applications. Some (limited to "certified" judicial scriveners, ninteishihoshoshi) also hold litigation representation rights in summary court proceedings. Patent applications are the work of patent attorneys, and tax filings are the work of tax accountants.

The judicial scrivener exam's guideline study time is about 3,000 hours or more, placing it among the toughest qualifications alongside tax accountant and patent attorney. It is often a qualification candidates plan to study for over multiple years.

The tax accountant exam's defining feature is its subject-pass system: once you pass a subject, that pass remains valid for life. Candidates aim to pass a total of 5 subjects — 2 required plus 3 elective — and many take several years to do so.

The tax accountant exam's 2 required subjects are bookkeeping theory (boki-ron) and financial statements theory (zaimushohyo-ron). In addition, candidates choose 3 elective subjects from options including income tax law, corporate tax law, inheritance tax law, consumption tax law, liquor tax law, national tax collection law, resident tax, business tax, and fixed asset tax.

Pass rates by subject on the tax accountant exam generally run 16.6-21.7%, but vary by subject — in 2025, financial statements theory was relatively high at 31.9%, while consumption tax law was relatively low at 10.1%.

A representative task exclusive to tax accountants is preparing tax filing documents and acting as tax agent (representing clients in dealings with tax offices). Registration is the work of judicial scriveners, permit/license applications the work of administrative scriveners, and patent applications the work of patent attorneys.

Passing all 5 subjects of the tax accountant exam is said to require around 2,000-4,000 hours of study, a workload comparable to the certified public accountant exam. Because of the subject-pass system, it's not uncommon for candidates to spend anywhere from several years to a decade on it.

The sharoshi exam consists of two formats: multiple-choice (7 subjects, 70 points max) and fill-in-the-blank/selection (8 subjects, 40 points max).

The sharoshi exam's subjects center on the fields of labor and social insurance, including labor standards law, industrial accident compensation insurance law, employment insurance law, industrial safety and health law, health insurance law, employees' pension insurance law, and national pension law. Patent law is a subject on the patent attorney exam.

The sharoshi exam sets a minimum passing score (a "cutoff line") for each subject in both the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank/selection formats. Even with a high overall score, failing to clear the cutoff in even one subject results in failure. This mechanism is considered a major factor behind the low pass rate (around 6-8%).

Sharoshi mainly handle preparing documents and acting as agent for procedures related to labor insurance and social insurance, as well as helping set up work rules and advising on labor management.

For independent study, the sharoshi exam's guideline is about 1,000 hours. That's shorter than the judicial scrivener or patent attorney exams (about 3,000 hours), but as the 6-8% pass rate suggests, the per-subject cutoff system means it is not an easy exam to pass.

The patent attorney exam has a three-stage structure: a short-answer exam, an essay exam (required subjects + elective subjects), and an oral exam. Candidates must pass all three stages to achieve final passage.

The patent attorney exam's core subjects are the industrial property laws centered on patent law, utility model law, design law, and trademark law. Questions are also drawn from treaties, copyright law, and the unfair competition prevention law.

The Reiwa 7 patent attorney exam's final pass rate was 6.4% (short-answer 12.8%, essay 28.0%, oral 91.3%). Successful candidates take the exam an average of 2.93 times, and data shows that only 16.1% pass on their first attempt.

A representative task for patent attorneys is acting as agent for patent, utility model, design, and trademark applications to the Japan Patent Office. As intellectual property specialists, they play a role in turning companies' research and development results into protected rights.

A key difference is that industrial property rights (patents, utility models, designs, trademarks) arise through filing and registration with the Japan Patent Office, whereas copyright arises automatically the moment a work is created. Understanding this difference is also tested on the patent attorney exam.

The patent attorney exam's guideline study time is about 3,000 hours, putting it among the toughest qualifications alongside the judicial scrivener exam. It's a qualification premised on a long haul, sometimes called the "3,000-hour wall."