was the Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court of Japan The , located in Hayabusachō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, is the highest court in Japan. It has ultimate judicial authority to interpret the Japanese constitution and decide questions of national law. It has the power of judicial review, which allows it ...

. Born in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, he attended the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

, graduating with an LL.B. and passing the bar examination in 1962. He was appointed as an assistant judge in 1964 and rotated through the criminal divisions of the Tokyo and Nagoya District Courts and of the Supreme Court. He obtained an MPhil from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

in 1968. He served on the Osaka District Court (1974–77), as a lecturer at the Legal Research and Training Institute (1977–81), on the

Tokyo District Court is a district court located at 1-1-4 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. See also *Judicial system of Japan In the judicial system of Japan, the Constitution of Japan guarantees that "all judges shall be independent in the exercise of thei ...

(1981–82; 1986–89), in the criminal division of the Supreme Court (1983–86; 1989–94), as chief judge of the Utsunomiya District Court (1994–96), as chief judge of the Urawa District Court (1996–98), as head of the Legal Research and Training Institute (1999–2001), as chief judge of the Sendai High Court (2001–02) and as chief judge of the Osaka High Court (2002). He was appointed to the Supreme Court on November 7, 2002, and became Chief Justice on October 16, 2006.

Hironobu Takesaki is a Japanese lawyer and a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan. He is a graduate of the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law and of Columbia Law School. At age 64, Takesaki replaced Niro Shimada as the Chief Justice when November ...

replaced Niro Shimada when November 21, 2008, the date of Shimada's mandatory retirement, came.Takesaki formally named as Supreme Court chief justice
" ''Japan Today''. October 31, 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shimada, Niro 1938 births Living people Chief justices of Japan University of Tokyo alumni Alumni of the University of London Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun