Synopsis:

This paper principally concerns the fundamental issue in Japanese trademark legislation, namely that of confusion (kondô). After briefly passing over the development of trademark law in Japan, the paper presents the key articles in the Trademark Law that deal with the issue in hand. Thereafter the paper presents a number of cases heard by the Intellectual Property High Court, and provides cursory examination of some of the features of the cases. Given the inescapable prolixity – in the interest of clarity – found in many discursive essays, the author feels the need in the present celebratory volume to hurry the proceedings along, and concludes with a comment regarding the inevitable influence of steadily increasing market dispersion on measuring confusion, or at least the apprehension that confusion may arise (kondo o shôzuru osore ga aru), to borrow a watchword found in Article 64 of the Trademark Law.