Individuals' legal rights are less of a priority in Japan than in the United States, an expert on the Japanese legal system told a small group yesterday at the Cambridge Forum.

Frank Upham, a Boston College Law School professor, said the Japanese perceive discrimination as a matter of the heart, while Americans view it as an attack on their legal rights.

"We think that discrimination on social and moral levels should be a legal issue and Japan doesn't," said Upham, the author of "Law and Social Change in Post-War Japan." He added that if America were to mimic Japan's legal system, "It would destroy the value we place on individual rights, which may be the only value we have left."

But Upham characterized American society as one that "awards individualism and pursuit of self-interest without concern for the community." The professor said, "We can learn from Japan that we should not have legal rights without social responsibilities."

Upham began his speech by quoting President Derek C. Bok's 1982 criticism of American lawyers. According to Upham, Bok argued that "Japanese society is successful because it has few lawyers and fewer lawsuits."

This argument may be misleading, Upham said. He acknowledged that there are 41 times as many lawyers and civil lawsuits in the United States than in Japan, but said many people who perform legal functions do not become professional lawyers.

"Instead, they enter bureaucracies, drafting contracts," Upham said, adding, "In Japan, this is not considered being in law, it is considered being in business."