About Us

Provide legal services to the public

NIBEN aims to be a highly
dependable friend, always working at
the forefront of problem solving.

NIBEN is aggressively working to realize justice for everybody. For such a purpose, the most important front-line activity required of us is to address rapidly and appropriately legal issues people are faced with. In compliance with such requirements, NIBEN has improved and upgraded its system to address and deal with legal counseling asked for by people. It should be noted, however, that cases are exceptional where a dispute is resolved just by means of legal counseling. In most cases, following such counseling it becomes necessary to hold a series of negotiations, go through a variety of procedures, or go to court.

In view of such a necessity, NIBEN wants to not only give legal counseling, but also help people find a solution to their disputes or troubles. For such a purpose NIBEN presents diverse ideas and endeavors to reach a final solution.

NIBEN's activities and services

  • Managing Counseling activities
    Permanent legal counseling services
    ・Legal Counseling Centers
    ・Telephone counseling for crime victims
    ・Counseling for minors, Telephone counseling for the elderly and the disabled
    ・Free telephone counseling for people living on isolated islands
    ・Emergency counseling on environmental and pollutions issues
  • Managing Counseling activities
    Ad-hoc counseling services & events (organized on a non-regular basis)
    ・Emergency counseling for medical malpractice or drug-induced diseases
    ・Emergency counseling for damage caused by financial products
    ・Emergency counseling on women's rights
    ・Free telephone counseling for people living on isolated islands
    ・Free concerted country-wide counseling service on employment and livelihood
    ・Free counseling service at Togenuki Jizou
    ・Ad-hoc counseling service at Higashi-Nihon Immigration Center
    ・Ad-hoc counseling service on issues related to earthquakes
  • Management and operation of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Center
  • Management and operation of Housing Dispute Settlement Agency
  • Recommendation of lawyers whom clients can regularty visit for counseling.
  • Telephone counseling for small and medium enterprises ("Himawari Hotto Dial")
  • Delivery service of legal lecture on demand ("Legal Workshop Delivery Service")
  • Guide for visitors to Bengoshikaikan (bar association hall); guide for observation of court proceedings
  • Support for dispatch of attorneys to depopulated areas

Variety of services

Legal counseling service

NIBEN places itself close to people's lives and provides legal counseling to help them settle disputes or troubles.

In a society where a large number of people coexist, at times we cannot avoid our own rights or interests from conflicting with those of other people or troubles arising with other people. Legal problems may lay hidden in our familiar everyday life, including at home and at the workplace. Examining these familiar disputes or daily troubles from a legal viewpoint and accurately addressing them provides a shortcut to their solutions. NIBEN offers legal counseling in a variety of ways at legal counseling centers set up at department stores and many other accessible places to deal with disputes and troubles suffered by people. NIBEN will continue to work to create an environment where people find laws and lawyers more accessible and closer to them and feel more at home when asking for legal counseling.

Legal Counseling Center

NIBEN offers legal counseling on all matters related to land lease, house rental, monetary troubles, inheritance, testaments, divorce, parent-child relationships, traffic accidents, credit, consumer loans, real estate transactions, healthcare issues, labor problems, racketeering committed by members of criminal organizations by interceding in civil disputes and threatening the use of violence ("Minbo"), criminal cases, and other legal issues. If the client requests a continuing legal service for the given case, we will arrange for a contract for the legal service including setting attorney fee and other expenses.

For inquiries please refer to

the list of legal counseling centers given on page 20.

ADR (alternative dispute resolution)

NIBEN resolves a wide variety of problems in an expeditious, flexible and careful manner.

Just suppose you have come across a problem in your everyday life or your company's business activities. You do not want the problem to grow bigger in order to not deteriorate the relationship with the other party. You want to talk with the other party and find a mutually satisfactory solution as far as possible, but your talk with the other party makes no progress.

ADR is a service that provides support for an amicable dispute resolution for the people or enterprises in such troublesome situations. We will have a well-experienced attorney who will act between the two parties, carefully hearing what each party has to say and providing support, encouraging both parties to make some concessions for an amicable solution. Bringing the matter to court is not the only means of solving disputes.

Arbitration and Mediation Center

The center will be helpful for those people who are unwilling to go to court for a problem with a neighbor or acquaintance, or those who hesitate to do so because a lawsuit requires much time and money. Our mediators are those who used to serve as judges, attorneys, or are persons of learning and experience. They will carefully listen to each of the parties and recommend optimal solutions. To date, some 60 percent of the cases have been resolved at the third meeting held within a three-month period from the date of the request made to the center.

For inquiries please call

03-3581-2249, Monday through Friday(except national holidays and year-end and New Year holidays),
from 9:30am to 12:00noon,or from 1:00pm to 4:30pm,in Japanese only.

Housing Dispute Settlement Agency

This is an ADR agency specialized in problems related to construction and sales of houses. Relating to a dispute that arises in connection with a house that has a "housing performance certificate" issued under the Housing Quality Assurance Act ("certified house") or a house that is covered by housing defect warranty liability insurance under the Act on Assurance of Performance of Specified Housing Defect Warranty ("insured house"), attorneys and experts in construction-related problems will arrange for meetings, and mediate or arbitrate the dispute for the disputing parties for an expeditious and fair resolution of the dispute.

For inquiries please call

03-3581-1714, Monday through Friday(except national holidays and year-end and New Year holidays),
from 9:30am to 12:00noon,or from 1:00pm to 4:30pm,in Japanese only.

Support for small and medium enterprises

99 percent of domestic businesses are small and medium enterprises (SMEs). NIBEN wants to invigorate the country by backing up SMEs.

Don't you think that "an attorney is where you should go for consultation only in cases of trouble"?

But you should know that you can save much time and money by taking day-to-day preventive measures before a problem actually arises and you are forced to tackle it.

NIBEN offers an attorney referral service to SMEs so that each of them can have a legal adviser who acts on its owner's side. Won't you feel secure and at ease if you have a legal adviser you can freely consult when you have any doubt of what your client says or when you start business with a new client?

Call "Himawari Hotto Dial" if you suddenly run into trouble. You will be supported by an attorney close to you.

Attorney Referral Center

The center offers an attorney referral service for those people who seek legal advice, ask for settlement of disputes, or request a legal lecture to be delivered or the writing of a legal document. The center recommends attorneys who are particularly well-experienced in highly specialized fields relating to the Antimonopoly Law, corporate bankruptcy, intellectual property rights, tax matters, administrative cases, business takeovers, Internet-related legal matters, or international matters.

For inquiries please call

03-3581-2380, Monday through Friday(except national holidays and year-end and New Year holidays),
10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Himawari Hotto Dial

The number offers an attorney referral service aimed at permitting attorneys to provide legal services to business operators across the country in an organized manner. Just dial the countrywide phone number. Your call will automatically be forwarded to the local bar association closest to you, and you will be provided with referral to an attorney practicing law nearby. You may ask such attorney for providing any legal services, such as general legal advice, settlement of a case, being a regular legal adviser, delivery of a legal lecture, or writing a legal treatise.

For inquiries please call

0570-001-240, Monday through Friday (except national holidays),
10:00 am to 4:00 pm (except between 12:00 noon and 1:00 pm).

NIBEN provides legal education

NIBEN works to develop the "zest for living" in children who shall bear the future of the country on their shoulders.

Although we are not very conscious of it, our society is where, actually in diverse situations, rules are made or problems are resolved on the basis of "legal thinking." Now that citizens participate more and more in criminal justice such as the lay judge system, this "legal thinking" will become increasingly important for life in future society.

Legal thinking gives us the ability to live in a civil society.

In cooperation with many schools NIBEN provides a variety of legal education services aimed at developing a "zest for living" in children who shall bear the country's future on their shoulders. (NIBEN also offers legal education services to adults.)

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