Japanese courts are suspending the court dates to prevent the spread of COVID-19

Japanese courts are now suspending many court dates in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

They started suspending the court dates after the Japanese government has declared the state of emergency on 7th April 2020. And now, following the extension of the declaration until the end of May 2020, the court dates scheduled in May are being suspended in many courts throughout Japan.

As there are many new potential cases which weren’t filed because of the voluntarily “stay home” in April, the court will likely to be very much over-scheduled after they re-open the suspended court dates after the end of May.

There are several different procedures at the court. Two major procedures are lawsuit (“Sosho”) and conciliation (“Cho-tei”). Japanese legal system requires conciliation procedure to be held before the lawsuit for several types of cases. This includes many family procedures such as divorce. Which means, if you want to file a divorce case to a Japanese court, you will first have to file for a conciliation procedure. You cannot go to lawsuit directly.

As the conciliation procedure includes more “close, detailed and long conversations” in a small room compared to lawsuits, there may be considerable delays for conciliation procedures for a long period of time (maybe more than several months).

For people who have serious and urgent legal issues at this moment, it will be important to move quicker than usual, taking into account the possibility of significant delays at the court.

Links to Covid-19 English information in Japan

NHK WORLD-JAPAN
Coronavirus outbreak
Multilingual coronavirus hotlines in Japan

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
About Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19
Q & A on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
METI’s Support Measures for Companies Concerning the Impacts of the Novel Coronavirus Disease

Kawasaki International Association
Counselling Services for Foreign Residence is currently available only by phone or e-mail. Face-to- face consultation is not available.

Kanagawa prefecture
Regarding the new coronavirus (COVID-19)

the japan times
COVID-19 NEWS UPDATES

Yubisashi
COVID-19 Phrases in 19 languages(FREE)

Year End Seminar and Party 2019 (December 19th Thursday)

Please register from the event page.
https://onestop-kawasaki-2019.peatix.com/

Kawasaki One-stop Business Startup Center is holding a Seminar and Networking Event about Business Startups in Japan. The seminar is about basic knowledge about visa and taxation for business startups in Japan. The lecture will be performed in English.

DATE:   
December 19, 2019  (Thursday) 

TIME:   
18:45~20:45 (Doors open at 18:30) 

VENUE:
Sumikawa Law Office
https://sumikawa.net/access/

Year End Networking Party 2018

Onestop Business Startup in Kawasaki  is holding an Year End Networking Event.

Date & Time: December 11th (Tuesday), 6:30PM
Venue: Sumikawa Law Office (Map)
Cost: 3,000 YEN (Food and Drink)

Please access Peatix for application.
http://ptix.at/WkqmDB

Food: Pizza, Sushi and Snacks
Drink: Beer, Wine, Sake, Shochu, Whisky, Soft Drinks

It will be a good opportunity to expand your network with English speaking professionals around Kawasaki, Tokyo and Yokohama.