Author: Kei Sumikawa

Attorney at Law (Sumikawa Law Office), Kawasaki city, Japan

Japanese Court System

1 District Court, Family Court

Civil cases and criminal cases are generally first heard by the district courts (Chiho Saibansho). There are district courts in each prefecture. There are also several branches of the district courts in each prefecture.

Family cases, such as inheritance and divorce, are heard by the family courts (Katei Saibansho). In many family cases, it is required to go through the family conciliation process first.

Summary Court

Civil trials where the amount of the case is 1.4 million yen or less are heard in the summary courts (Kan-i Saibansho).
In addition to civil trials, small claims court and demand for payment are also available at the summary courts.
In addition, most of the civil mediation cases are conducted in the Summary Court.

Some of the minor criminal cases are also heard at the summary courts.

2 High Court

If there is an appeal against the judgment of the district court or family court, the case will be heard by the high court (Koutou Saibansho). There are eight high courts in Japan (Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Takamatsu, Fukuoka).

3 Supreme Court

If there is any dissatisfaction with the judgment of the high court, the case can be appealed to the Supreme Court (Saikou Saibansho). However, as a general rule, this is limited to cases of constitutional or procedural violations.

Qualified Acceptance of the Inheritance (Japanese Civil Code Article 922)

Article 922　An heir may accept inheritance reserving to perform the obligation or testamentary gift of the decedent only within the extent of the property obtained by inheritance.

Japanese Civil Code Article 922 is about the Qualified Acceptance of the Inheritance. (Gentei-Shounin in Japanese)

With Qualified Acceptance, the heirs inherit the burden of the decedent’s debts only to the extent of the assets gained by the inheritance. In other words, if the debt is paid off and the assets remain, the heirs can get what is left. Conversely, if the assets are not enough to pay the debt in full, the heirs only have to pay what is gained by the inheritance.

This system looks like a very good and fair way to go, if you only look at the wording of the law. However, this procedure is rarely used. Only several hundred cases are filed each year throughout Japan, where almost 1.4 million people die.

The reason for this is that the procedure is often very cumbersome and expensive.

Filing this procedure requires the petitioner (the heir) to make a detailed investigation of the decedent’s assets and provide a detailed report to the court. It is also necessary to take the time to make distributions to creditors. In addition, the tax process can be quite complicated. These result in a significant amount of time and extremely high costs. Even after spending a lot of time and money, the heirs may not receive anything at all.

Therefore, there are very few situations in which this system is available.

Support for real estate (property) transactions in Japan

Selling your real estate in Japan when you reside abroad.

By owning a property in Japan, you will have to incur expenses and taxes, even if you don’t use the property any more. In such case, you may have to consider selling the property.

If you live abroad and want to sell your real estate in Japan, you may be required to come to Japan to sign a contract. However, there may be people who have difficulties coming to Japan. In such cases, by having an attorney (Bengoshi lawyer) represent you, you may be able to close the contract while in your own country.

For example, it is possible for the attorney to support you to negotiate and sell land, buildings and leasehold rights in Japan that are no longer needed by yourself.

We mainly handle cases in Tokyo and Kanagawa area, however, we can provide support for real estate throughout Japan.

Important Note (Beware of non-existent lawyers)

Please note that we have received several consultations about fraudulent cases involving companies and offices purporting to be located in Japan. If you are looking for a Japanese lawyer (attorney, Bengoshi) or agent from abroad, be sure to check that they are officially registered. You can find a registered attorney’s list on the Japan Federation of Bar Associations’ website. Also, the U.S. Embassy, UK Government and Government of Canada provide lists of lawyers who can be contacted in English.

Japan Federation of Bar Associations’ website

Make sure the contact (address and phone number) of the offices or agents matches the information provided from these official bodies. As a result of our researches at the request of overseas clients, we have identified several websites that fraudulently abuse the names of real lawyers and accountants in Japan.