Through the case study of two social movements, "Teshima movement" and "Shareholders movement", this article tries to show characteristics of lawyers' commitment to the new types of social movements. Teshima movement is concerned with removal of industrial waste which had been dumped unlawfully to a solitary island. Shareholders movement aims to improve corporate governance in Japanese business society by mobilization of derivative suits.
Lawyers' commitment to the two social movements has two remarkable tendencies. One is the pluralistic commitment and the other is legal system oriented commitment. In each case, lawyers have become the organizer of the movements. They mobilize not only legal resource to file a suit or to go to mediation, but also mobilize multiple social resources to organize or revitalize the movement.