Lawrence Repeta is a professor on the law faculty of Meiji University in Tokyo. He has served as a lawyer, business executive, and law professor in Japan and the United States. He is best known in Japan as the plaintiff in a landmark suit decided by the Supreme Court of Japan in 1989 that opened Japan`s courts to note-taking by courtroom spectators. He serves on the board of directors of Information Clearinghouse Japan (情報公開クリアリングハウス) (www.clearing-house.org), an NGO devoted to promoting open government in Japan and is affiliated with other organizations that promote individual rights. He has been awarded an Abe Fellowship by the Center for Global Partnership to conduct research at the National Security Archive, a non-profit research institute located at George Washington University (www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv). His guide to Japan’s information disclosure movement is available at www.freedominfo.org/regions/east-asia/japan. His article “Reserved Seats on Japan’s Supreme Court” was published in the Washington University Law Journal and is available at (http://lawreview.wustl.edu/in-print/vol-886/).