The legal- and law-related-services market is undergoing significant transformation: it is being expanded and becoming highly competitive, affected by the cultural and economic diversification of the current world society. In Japan, another aspect must be considered in order to clearly understand this transformation. In addition to fully qualified legal professionals, or bengoshi, there are many different certified law-related practitioners such as shihō shoshi (judicial scriveners), gyōsei shoshi (administrative scriveners), zeirishi (certified public tax attorneys), benrishi (patent attorneys), sharōshi (labour and social-security attorneys), and others who are also important actors in the legal- and law-related-services market. These certified law-related practitioners take on important roles not only in services related to civil and administrative law, but also in corporate legal matters in the specialized fields of the business activities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Japan. Traditionally, bengoshi and other certified law-related practitioners have shared the legal-services market symbiotically, without competition. However, the situation has gradually changed since around the 1990s. In this paper, the factors of the transformation of the Japanese legal- and law-related-services market are discussed based on empirical data, and the direction of the transformation in this market is indicated.