When a law scholars’ group was established to draft a bill aimed at revising the Civil Code of Japan, although the draft was a proposal drawn up by private scholars, I thought it appropriate for the proposal to be made available for an international audience.

The work of translating the draft provisions, which required the use of legal terminology, was successfully completed by Ms Shibahara. Subsequently, I also asked Ms. Shibahara to translate such documents as a report for an international symposium and an article for a foreign law journal.

These twin aspects of knowledge of legal terminology and mastery of elegant eloquence embodied in Ms Shibahara’s English form intellectual tools which, I feel, are indispensable to the Japanese legal field in presenting their publications.