In order to respond to criticisms of its litigation procedures, Japan enacted a new Code of Civil Procedure in 1996. The new Code will come into effect on January 1, 1998. The objectives of the new code are to try to speed up the course of civil litigation and to allow more discovery than is permitted under the present code.

Under the new Code of Civil Procedure, the patentee will have a choice as to where to bring an action for patent infringement: either in the district court having ordinary jurisdiction over the matter or in the Tokyo or Osaka District Courts, which are to have specialized intellectual property divisions. In general if the court normally having jurisdiction is north of Nagoya, the plaintiff will also have the right to bring the action before the Tokyo District Court. If the district where the action could normally be brought is south of Nagoya, the additional right to bring the action is in the Osaka District Court.

It is hoped that when it comes into effect the new Civil Procedure Code will result in some improvement in the speed with which cases will be disposed of since the new code permits the parties to ask questions of each other directly, although there is no compulsion for the receiving party to reply, and also broadens the definition of the documents that a judge can order to be disclosed to the other side unless they are covered by a secrecy provision or were written "solely for the use of the holder thereof". It remains to be seen what the effect of these changes will be.

The new Code of Civil Procedure will not change the general form of a Japanese trial which will continue to consist of a series of meetings between the parties (or their counsel) and the judges but does contain provisions aimed at focussing such meetings more precisely on the issues involved and speeding up the course of the litigation.