Dr. Tsuyoshi Yamada, a counsel of our offices, has recently contributed a paper on “Double standards of fiduciary duty of care ruled out by the Supreme Court of Japan” for Kinyu-shouji-hanrei (No.1389). In that paper, Dr. Yamada discusses the following issues:
i) Two different standards of fiduciary duty of care which have been defined by the Supreme Court of Japan in recent cases; one of them appeared in the case in which bank directors were defendants, and the other in the Apaman case in which the “principles on business judgment” were first recognized.
ii) The court applying higher standard of duty to the bank directors on the basis of “public interest” attached to banking business.
iii) Problems arising as a result of these two standards of duty such as the bank directors being exposed to a higher standard of duty of care without any specific statutory basis.

Professor Yamada’s paper will be an essential reading for directors of banks.