Interim remedies in Japan—introductionInterim measures are intended to preserve a party’s rights and assets, to prevent harm or maintain the status quo, and to regulate conduct pending a decision on the merits. In international arbitration they are frequently decisive of the practical effectiveness of the process.The Japanese position is one of recent and deliberate modernisation. Arbitration seated in Japan is governed by the Arbitration Act (Act No. 138 of 2003) (the ‘Arbitration Act’), originally based on the UNCITRAL Model Law (1985). Until 1 April 2024, the Act contained only an abstract provision on interim measures and, critically, no mechanism for their enforcement, so that an interim measure depended on the parties’ voluntary compliance and was, in practice, little used.The Act was amended by Act No. 15 of 2023, in force on 1 April 2024, to align Japan with the 2006 revisions to the Model Law. The amended Act