‘I came to Japan in October 2012 and became a research student for six months. After that, I took the entrance exam for the master’s degree course. Fortunately, I passed the exam and am now a first-year student at the Graduate School of Law in Nagoya University,” said Lim Lyhong, 23, who is currently studying in Japan.

After graduating from Royal University of Laws and Economics (RULE) and Center for Japanese Law (CJL), he pursued his Master’s degree in Constitutional Law in Japan.

After studying Japanese for five years, Lyhong found it quite easy to communicate with Japanese speakers. However, he said, “during the lectures or seminars where students discuss particular topics, I sometimes find it difficult to understand what they are talking about.”

Lyhong attributes this difficulty to the speed at which the Japanese students speak and the lack of context, as many foreign students do not know the historical issues as in depth as the native students.

Studying Law in Japan is far different from that in Cambodia. “As far as I’m concerned, one big difference between learning in Japan and learning in Cambodia is the availability of research facilities. While in Cambodia, we find it hard to get access to many materials, in Japan, libraries and computer facilities are much more accessible,” said Lyhong,

“For example, in Nagoya University’s library, there are nearly three million volumes of books, 5,580 academic journals and 8,400 electronic journals, accessible via the internet from within the university’s network domain. Therefore, students can quickly get information on their research topic with ease.”

According to Lyhong, Japan has about 1,800 laws. No country is perfect in implementing their laws, but he thinks Japan has been doing its best to implement its legal code.

“As a developed country, Japan has been enacting and implementing laws in almost all necessary fields to tackle issues in the country, so I think it is worth doing research on Japanese laws. However, it is not enough. We should also look at laws of other countries, like the Western countries, to broaden our knowledge,” said Lyhong.

At last, Lyhong gave a recommendation, “First, we must know our country’s laws inside and out. We should be aware of our country’s laws, how Cambodia has implemented laws, and what kind of issues Cambodia has faced. Also, we must learn to understand laws in a comparative aspect. We shall look at other countries’ law systems and how they have been implementing their laws. By doing so, we can broaden our understanding and find solutions to tackle large issues in our country.”