How can I disclaim an inheritance in Japan?

In Japan, there is a three-month period of time (called a deliberation period) during which the legal heir may accept or disclaim the inheritance (The Japanese civil code, Article 915). The deliberation period starts from the time when the legal heir recognises the deceased person’s death and that they are their legal heir. It does not automatically start from the date of the deceased person’s death. This period can be extended by the family court on the application of the legal heir, an interested party or a public prosecutor.

An inheritance windfall isn’t always welcome, and it is often the case that all you get is a debt after all. The Japanese civil code (Article 882) applies what is called “The doctrine of universal succession”, that the heir(s) succeed to all the rights and liabilities relating to the property a deceased person at the time of death. The heir(s) inherit the deceased person’s entire estate and debts, including any tax arrears, as well as assets. In the case where the debts of an estate exceeds its assets, it is better to consider disclaiming any inheritance. When the heir disclaims their inheritance, they are no longer obliged to pay the deceased person’s tax arrears.

Application for a disclaimer of inheritance is made to the family court in Japan. When the process at the family court is completed, the legal heir is no longer the deceased person’s heir and does not owe any debts. However, they will not be able to inherit any right, such as real property or financial assets. After the completion of the process, the family court will issue a “Certificate of Acceptance of the Application for Renunciation of Inheritance,” and in practice, a copy of the certificate is sent to creditors, such as a bank and a credit company.

It’s important to note that if you discover that the deceased person has money in the bank and you withdraw it and spend it, you might not be able to disclaim the inheritance afterwards as this could allow you to evade repaying this debt. However, if you use the money for the deceased person’s funeral expenses of or any other reasonable necessity in a common sense amount, you can still disclaim the inheritance at a later date. It is generally recommended that you keep as little money as possible and avoid using it.

The effect of an inheritance disclaimer is that the person who disclaims the inheritance shall be deemed not to have been an heir to it from the date of succession. If the sole or all statutory heirs of the first rank, the spouse or children of the deceased, disclaim their inheritance, then, the deceased is legally treated as if they had neither spouse nor children, and under Japanese civil code, the parents of the deceased, in turn, become the heirs. The parents, of course, don’t want to owe the debt, so they also go through the process of disclaimer of inheritance. Then there will be no parents, so under Japanese civil code, the siblings of the deceased person will be the heirs. The siblings don’t want to owe the debt, of course, so they also go through the process of disclaiming it.

 

In other cases, where (for example) the statutory heirs do not a wish not to break up a family business, and agree that the eldest son should be the only heir, the other statutory heirs would each make a disclaimer.

The issues mentioned above might make you worry if everyone needs to disclaim their inheritance within three months of knowing of the deceased person’s death, but don’t worry. For parents, the three months period of the disinherit counts after the child or children’s disclaimer is made. Likewise, the three months period for siblings only starts after the parent’s disclaimer is completed and they know that the parent has disclaimed their inheritance.

I provide support for the disclaimer process to the Japanese family court from abroad.

I will update every Monday.
For more information

https://lawhelp4u.com/propertyJapan/

 

Japanese business consultant
Shihoshoshi Lawyer
(Judicial Scrivener)
Akiko HORI

 

Choices about how to succeed

It was after my grandfather’s death that I first became aware of the “inheritance process”. I was already married at the time, and I had never cared about the “law” itself until then. At that time, when my family got into trouble with the division of the estate, I realised that “The law was something that costs money and time, and if I hadn’t prepared for it beforehand, the situation wouldn’t proceed as I want”. That’s why I started studying for the Shihoshoshi lawyer’s exam. Now I am working as a lawyer.

 

In the past, it was the standard practice for the eldest son to inherit the family’s estate, but today, each heir has the right for a certain portion of the estate. I would like each individual to come to understand the options for the estate succession, and they can make their own choices about how to succeed.

 

Specifically, the following options could be possible.

1. Leave it to the potential heirs after death. (This is the current mainstream.)
2. Make a gift in advance.
3. Leave a will.
4. Coming to an agreement into effect before death or by a will.
5. Using the adult guardianship system.

 

Every procedure has its pros and cons, and as long as we are alive, we have different individual feelings. It would be impossible for others to understand a person’s heart 100%, but I believe it is important for a lawyer to make an effort to understand individuals’ feelings, feel empathy to their thoughts, and achieve their plan within the framework of the law.

 

Rather than us not caring about our inheritance problems, we might be so busy in our daily lives that we don’t have time to think about the death of a parent, grandparent or our own death. However, it will definitely happen at some point in the future.

 

The judicial statistics for 2018 shows that about 76% of the cases that are brought to family courts nationwide are ones of estates under 50 million YEN (equivalent to about 360,000 UK pounds). Any conflict regarding distributing an estate is not uncommon, and all of us might encounter it.

I try to be proactive about inheritance-related procedures and succession planning as my motivation for becoming a lawyer is related to my family’s inheritance issues.

 

As part of the process, I often talk to a client about how to start their succession planning. I believe that succession planning is a “letter to the family or people who will be heirs or beneficiaries”. My advice is to encourage my clients to write it like a letter first if they don’t know how to distribute their property,

 

Documents should be finalised under the appropriate law because a succession planning is a legal process, but perfect documents cannot be prepared from the beginning, and the writing from your heart is most important. After that, leave the process to the experts. I want to follow the person’s heart as best I can.

 

I will update every Monday.
For more information

https://lawhelp4u.com/propertyJapan/
Japanese business start-up consultant
Shihoshoshi Lawyer
(Judicial Scrivener)
Akiko HORI

Family, Inheritance and legally secured portion

The following contents on this subject of legally secured portions are written in accordance with Japanese civil law.
I will write an outline of the “legally secured portion” in relation to the international law another time.

In my work as a Shihoshoshi Lawyer, I often have opportunities to talk with heirs and relatives about the inheritance procedure for the deceased person’s real property. Because of these experiences, I often think about my life and death through a number of legal proceedings. I don’t think I need to think about this too seriously, but as long as I am a human being, I will die one day, and when I do die, I hope that I avoid conflicts between my heirs as much as possible.

In my opinion, Shihoshoshi Lawyers, who are primarily working on non-conflicting cases and legal administrative matters, have a different perspective from Bengoshi lawyers, who are working on any cases including negotiating legal disputes.

In Japan, when a person makes a will or gifts real property to someone before their death, or divides their estate among the heirs after the inheritance occurs, there is often a problem about the “legally secured portion”.

The “legally secured portion” in Japan acknowledges the right of heirs other than the siblings of a deceased person to get a certain percentage of the estate, if the deceased person’s parent is the only heir, the fixed percentage is one-third of the entire estate. If a child is included among the heirs, he or she will be allowed a legally secured portion, even if the child is an adult. When a spouse or a child (or both) are included as an heir, the legally secured portions is one-half of the entire estate. The individual heir multiplies this entire estate by their individual legal percentage.

It is easy to say “a certain percentage” in words, but it’s hard to know what the extent their estate is at the time of death. Even if the heirs clarify what is the whole estate, if a conflict arises because one of the heirs keeps an excessive proportion of the estate, and they refuse to negotiate, the heir who thinks they have not received what is their right should take action in a court. However, it is not always possible for such an heir to be granted their full entitlement in accordance with their wishes.

In today’s nuclear families, it is common for different generations not to live together when children legally become adults at 20 (at 18 from 1st April, 2022), and there might not be many opportunities for them to see each other if they live separately. However, inheritances will always occur at some point. I think the best way to avoid a conflict is actually to find as many opportunities as possible to keep in close contact, see each other once in a while, and keep the relationship between parents and children alive. I believe that with rights always come obligations. I don’t think looking after parents is an obligation, but I do believe that this responsibility as a child exists to some extent.

Please refer to the article about “Estate and Succession planning – 1-7. Making a will Part 1 & Part 2”

https://akikohorishihoshosilawyer.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/estate-and-succession-planning-1-7-making-a-will-part-1/

I will update every Monday.
For more information

https://lawhelp4u.com/propertyJapan/

Japanese business start-up consultant
Shihoshoshi Lawyer
(Judicial Scrivener)
Akiko HORI

Work life balance and Japanese bank holidays

Today(10th August, 2020) is a bank holiday, called Mountain Day in Japan. It is a public holiday stipulated by the Article 2 of the Act on National Holidays, and according to the law, there are 16 days of public holidays a year in Japan. https://elaws.e-gov.go.jp/search/elawsSearch/elaws_search/lsg0500/detail?lawId=323AC1000000178

The number of public holidays in the UK, where I lived in the past, is 8 days a year. https://www.gov.uk/bank-holidays

I often feel that there are too many bank holidays in Japan, and when I find that Japan has twice as many bank holidays as the UK, I think to myself my feeling is right.

I have made a comparison of the number of bank holidays in the UK and Japan, so let’s take a look at some of the cultural differences related to holidays. As a reader of this blog, you may relate to Japanese society, and you may also hear that the Japanese people don’t take a day off work unless it’s a bank holiday.

In my experience, colleagues go to work even though they have a fever or a bad cold. Ever since I started to be self-employed, I’ve been thinking that they don’t need to push themselves too hard about going to work, but many of them I know go to work anyway. Then, if their condition gets worse, they would go home. However, it is likely for them to stay in their office until 5 or 6 pm. The background to this attitude, on the positive side, is that it is an expression of a sense of responsibility that they shouldn’t inconvenience other colleagues, but on the negative side, the old practice of “traditional loyalty” still exists in Japanese society.

I hope that the attitude above will be changed soon because of the recent Covid-19 pandemic.

On the other hand, when I talk to friends from Britain about this matter, their typical attitude is that “No way!”. Then, they ask next how many days of holiday Japanese workers have. The answer is about a week. When I answer like that, they definitely say that that is not a holiday at all. At least a month of annual holiday is needed. I’m sure that Japanese culture has certain strengths, but I personally hope, as my British friends say, that the standard holiday entitlement should be at least a month.

In addition, in Japan, there is a custom, called “OBON” (お盆), to welcome the spirits of ancestors from the afterlife to return for a few days in the middle of August. It will be from 13th to 16th August in 2020. This custom is regarded as a Buddhist one, but a memorial service has been held once or twice a year to honor the spirits of ancestors since ancient times of Japan. “OBON” is an event that integrates ancient Japanese customs and Buddhism ones.

Note to self, “OBON” is not a bank holiday, so council offices and banks are open for business as usual.

I will update every Monday.
For more information
Japanese business start-up consultant
Shihoshoshi Lawyer
(Judicial Scrivener)
Akiko HORI

https://lawhelp4u.com/advice/

Purchase price by the recorded dimensions and by the determined boundary dimensions

In relation to boundaries, a buyer might expect to encounter an Important Disclosure Statement. The Important Disclosure Statement is the legal document that shows all the dimensions of the land that the buyer is buying.

The description on the Indication of Land listed on the cadastre (address, lot number, land classification and acreage) at the Legal Affairs Bureau must be accurate but accurate surveying techniques were not available in 1873-1881. Modern standards of land surveying arrived much later.

Accurate land surveying would have been expensive and the estate agent in charge may sell the buyer real property with a description of the dimensions on cadastre at the Legal Affairs Bureau.

However, the estate agent has a legal obligation to investigate the boundary, which includes to check boundary markers at the place where the real property is located, and make the boundary clear to the buyer before concluding a sales agreement.

If the fact that it is impossible to make it clear by the date is stated, the estate agent should provide the necessary advice.

In the case above, there are 2 options for the buyer.

One is that you draw a conclusion based on the price and dimensions stated on the record.

Another option is to pay the price tentatively at a time of conveyance and hold a survey at the cost of the seller or the buyer, and settle the difference in price between the areas. As the buyer, you can insist the seller should apply for the determined boundary, but the seller might decide not to sell the property.

In general, forest land and farmland are sold by the recorded dimensions as it is too large and too expensive for surveying but even residential land for sale may be sold by the recorded dimensions.

The first thing to recognise is that the transaction may contain a recorded description of the dimensions of the land.

I believe that a good lawyer should listen and give you clear information (verbal and written) to prevent the trouble from happening.

 

I hope the information is useful.
I will update every Monday.
For more information
Japanese business start-up consultant
Shihoshoshi Lawyer
(Judicial Scrivener)
Akiko HORI

https://lawhelp4u.com/propertyJapan/