How to become a Judicial Scrivener
Uses specialist legal knowledge to handle property and company registrations on clients' behalf and to prepare documents for courts and other bodies.
Main tasks
- Handling the registration needed when land or buildings are bought and sold
- Handling the removal of a mortgage from the register when a home loan is paid off
- Handling registration for setting up or merging companies and opening branches, and handling deposits with the legal affairs bureau
- Obtaining documents such as family registers
- Handling registration of a change of owner, for example after a gift made during the owner's lifetime
- Handling inheritance procedures such as registering inherited property and settling estates
- Helping clients write wills
- Helping draw up contracts
- Hearing the facts from the parties, sorting out the court procedures needed and preparing documents to support court proceedings
- Representing clients in lawsuits at summary courts
- Representing clients in enforcing judgments in small claims cases
- Negotiating settlements with the other party
- Acting as an adult guardian, carrying out legal acts on behalf of the person under guardianship
- Planning and running legal advice sessions
Workers in this job say university is common. From job tag's survey of people in each job, who could give several answers. It shows what workers see as common, not how many workers hold each level.
How to become one
You must pass the national judicial scrivener (shiho shoshi) exam, register on the roll of the Japan Federation of Shiho-Shoshi Lawyer's Associations and join a local association. Anyone can sit the exam, but you need specialist legal knowledge and practical knowledge. Few people open their own office straight after passing. Most work at a judicial scrivener's office and gain experience before opening their own. To keep up with new laws and changes to the law, even after opening your own office you need to keep studying by actively taking part in training and study groups run by the federation and local associations.
Ways in
- University: Law & Justice degrees, Offered by 49 universities in Japan
- National licence or qualification: Listed by job tag as a qualification related to this job (関連資格): 司法書士. Needed to do this job (Peernovo, from job tag's entry description). English name and classification by Peernovo.
Pay · Job openings · AI and this job
- Average annual income: ¥9,811,100 Private sector only: employers with 10 or more staff. Public servants, such as public school teachers and police officers, are not in these figures.
- Monthly base pay (before overtime and bonus): median ¥463,100, and the middle half earn ¥353,300 to ¥725,300 a month.
- Pay measured for the wage survey group: Legal workers
- 0.80 job openings per applicant at Hello Work (2025). A current demand signal, not a projection. It counts only the jobs and job seekers registered at Hello Work, Japan's public employment offices, and many graduate and professional hires never pass through it.
- Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Related jobs
Not sure this is for you? Take the 2-minute career quiz
Questions people ask
How do I become a Judicial Scrivener?
You must pass the national judicial scrivener (shiho shoshi) exam, register on the roll of the Japan Federation of Shiho-Shoshi Lawyer's Associations and join a local association. Anyone can sit the exam, but you need specialist legal knowledge and practical knowledge. Few people open their own office straight after passing. Most work at a judicial scrivener's office and gain experience before opening their own. To keep up with new laws and changes to the law, even after opening your own office you need to keep studying by actively taking part in training and study groups run by the federation and local associations.
How much does a Judicial Scrivener earn in Japan?
Average annual income in the private sector, bonus included, is ¥9,811,100 (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare). The figure is for the wage survey group Legal workers, which covers several jobs.
Do you need a degree to become a Judicial Scrivener?
Usually. In this job's census occupation group, 83% of workers are university graduates.
Will AI change the work of a Judicial Scrivener?
Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Basic Survey on Wage Structure (賃金構造基本統計調査) 2025: earnings by occupation (2025 survey (June 2025 pay, 2024 bonus), published 2026-03-24), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Employment Referrals for General Workers (一般職業紹介状況): Hello Work job-openings-to-applicants ratio by occupation (2025 annual (release of 2026-10-02)), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- Statistics Bureau of Japan (MIC): 2020 Population Census (令和2年国勢調査) detailed sample tabulation: employed by occupation, sex, age and education (2020 Census (tables 9-1 and 15-1, published 2022-12-27)), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- JILPT (職業情報データベース) via MHLW job tag: job tag download data: 解説系 (descriptions, how to become, related qualifications) and 簡易版数値系 (interests, tasks, education) (解説系 ver.7.01 (2026-06-04); 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00 (2026-03-17)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 解説系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_description_7_01.xlsx）ver.7.01 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成
独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 簡易版数値系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_numeric_7_00.xlsx）ver.7.00 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成
Sources: JILPT Occupational Information Database download data via job tag (解説系 ver.7.01 and 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00, downloaded 4 October 2026), processed by Peernovo; MHLW, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025; Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2020 Population Census; MEXT, School Basic Survey 2025; MHLW, Employment Referrals for General Workers (Hello Work statistics). Figures processed by Peernovo. English job names, translations and the matching of jobs to statistical groups, schools and degree fields by Peernovo.
Updated 4 October 2026