Eibun-Horei-Sha, Inc. was established on July 27, 1956 by Fukio NAKANE who was the first dean of the School of Law of the Asia University, Tokyo. NAKANE got B.A. in Economics in 1923 and B.A. in Law in 1925 at the Tokyo Imperial University (He got two silver watches). The Chief Director of Eibun-Horei-Sha, Inc. is Kenichi SATO (B.A. in Economics at Waseda University in 1991) who is a grand son of Fukio NAKANE.

The Business of EHS began from the period of occupation of United States in 1945. When the Prime Minister, Hideki TOJO, was charged as A-class war criminal, the defense counsel, Ichiro KIYOSE, said, “TOJO is bad. Bad is reason for defending.” according to Shinjiro KIYOSE (Professor Emeritus of Asia University; Ex-Chief Director of Eibun-Horei-Sha; Died in April 10th, 2006) who is second son of Ichiro KIYOSE. Ichiro KIYOSE was the Minister of Education who permitted the establishment of Eibun-Horei-Sha in 1956. Fukio NAKANE died with saying that “Continue the business of Eibun-Horei-Sha.” to his family in 1983. While alive, NAKANE said “Although doing only translation is out of course as a scholar, I do not regret to donate my life to this business as a life-work.”

Under the occupation of the U.S. after the World War II, the Official Gazette of Japan was published in both English and Japanese by the order of the GHQ and all Japanese Laws and other regulations that were newly promulgated and amended were translated into English under the responsibility of the Japanese Government. The job of NAKANE after his coming back from the North east of China was the translation of the above Laws and Ordinances. We heard that the beginning was helping the work of translation at the Bank of Japan. In April 1952, the Peace Treaty between U.S. and Japan came into force and Japan became independent, the Japanese Government abolished those English promulgations, so only Japanese was used for the promulgations as before the WW II. However, English translations of Japanese Laws are expected by not only the most entities related to the U.S. but also business world so that, at the suggestion of Tokujiro KANAMORI, the Chief Director of the National Diet Library (KANAMORI is one of the persons of drafting the Constitution of Japan that was promulgated in November 3rd, 1946), Prof. NAKANE founded EHS with the support of Tsuneo TAJIRI, the president of the Tokyo Economics University, Shigeharu MATSUMOTO, the Chief Director of the International Culture Center, many foreign Lawyers (such as Thomas L. Blakemore & Richard W. Rabinowitz), the Ford Foundation and the related Ministries.

Tsuneo TAJIRI assumed his position as the First Chief Director of EHS, and also Toshiyoshi MIYAZAWA, Atsunosuke KOIKE, Tamotsu HASHIMOTO and Fukio NAKANE assumed their positions as Directors. Koji NATORI and Kyozo YUASA assumed as Auditors, and Ryukichi AMEMIYA, Sotaro OGONUKI, Masatoshi YOKOTA and Yukichi SUGIHARA assumed as trustees. Since then, it was very hard work to translate newly promulgated and amended laws, Cabinet Orders and Ministerial Ordinances in order to keep those regulations updated by checking the Official Gazette everyday.

The translations have been called as “EHS LAW BULLETIN SERIES”. It is the most comprehensive collection of English translations of Japanese Laws now. As of November 2018, it includes some 330 current translations of Japanese laws into English. It is not advertised as a source of official translations of Japanese laws, but for more than 60 years EHS LAW BULLETIN SERIES has been the only readily available English translation. The most recent version of EHS LAW BULLETIN SERIES is published in 13 binders, with a total of 8 volumes (some of the volumes are in two or three parts). The binders contain pamphlet, each of which holds a law or in some cases two or more laws. When the laws are updated, the entire pamphlet is replaced. Each pamphlet can be purchased separately.

The translated Japanese laws are sold to universities, libraries, companies, corporations, embassies and law firms around the world, and EHS brand is widespread year by year. Since Japanese economy is developing as superpower and taking important roles in the international society, the needs of Japanese Laws are increasing. We recognized that our roles are important and our books are expected to be correct and sophisticated, and also we understand that our responsibilities are heavy.