The inheritance rule in Japan

Hello. I am Akiko Hori, a Shihoshoshi lawyer in Japan.
Thank you for reading this.

Already, four months have passed since I came back from London to Japan.
Time flies so quickly!
I still miss London a lot but I am coming to terms with my current situation and getting things into perspective.

Today I would like to talk about the Japanese Inheritance procedure.
Japanese law grants an automatic right of inheritance to the surviving partner and children.
An heir should either give an unconditional or qualified acceptance of the inheritance, or renounce their right of succession within three months. If he/she needs to extend the initial three month period, they can ask the family court for an extension of the period.

In most cases it is considered rather good news to inherit the asset of a deceased person. However, if the deceased was heavily indebted, it may be a different story.

If a legal surviving partner who has children renounces their inheritance, then these children will be next in line. If there are no children, then the parents of the deceased will be next in line. Moreover, if there are no children and parents, then the decedent’s brother or sister will be third in line.

Nowadays a lot of Japanese people go abroad for their life and work and the situation is getting complicated. The fact that a child whose parents are Japanese is born in outside of Japan and speaks only English may occur often. I already have the experience of helping those people legally and linguistically.

The Japanese traditional working system and future outlook for woman

Hello. I am Akiko Hori, a Shihoshoshi lawyer in Japan.
Thank you for reading this.

The traditional idea for woman
Today, I would like to start by saying a few words about Japanese working idea for woman.Traditionally people think women should stay at home after they get married. They are in charge of raising their kids and do housework. Women should not eat out, drink out with friends especially in the evening. People in Japan think ‘Sengyo-shufu’ is the best way for woman to live. I don’t know if you are familiar with ‘Sengyo-shufu’. ‘Sengyo-shufu’ means staying at home and doing all housework and not going to work outside. That is something to think about, and I will return to this point later. So I have divided my write up into two sections. First of all, I will explain the current opportunity. After that, I will go on to talk about the challenge to future and I will conclude with some comments about how it will develop in the future.

1.Current opportunity
Moving on now to look at how is a current situation in Japan. Against the traditional idea, women are becoming more free to choose to be an employee, an employer, self-employed or an entrepreneur. Some women are quite ambitious and some have already made a success of their lives. But on the contrary in Europe, more women are employers than counterparts in Japan. Even though women have their own work, it is still considered that they will obey what men say.

2.Future challenge
Firstly women recognize their right to express freely what she wants to do and have a passion to work. I don’t mean to push woman to work. Women can , of course, choose to stay at home as a housewife. Women’s network is also a good way to share their experience so that it is a good idea to make a small group and help each other. For self-employed people like me, it is a good idea to share their office with someone who also has a kid around same age. Because raising a kid is also important and as a self-employed, they needn’t to put their kid to a nursery all the time, but they need to have a business meeting with clients, In case of a meeting, they need someone to help. If someone who has a kid at same age has a similar feeling, they can help each other. There are many working ways women can choose.

Agreement from Men and collaboration
As a human being, we should take into account empathy and harmony. And this brings me to the last point. Nobody achieves her purpose without help. When women want to go to the society, men’s help is essential. To say in other words, team work is needed. To sum up, we should listen to what a person wants to do and say either at home or work more freely. When we collaborate, it leads a better result in future.

Work-life-balance in Japan

Hello. I am Akiko Hori, a Shihoshoshi lawyer in Japan.
Thank you for reading this.

Already one month has passed since I came back to Japan.
Now I am going to greet my old clients and colleagues.
They are all helpful and said they are happy to work with me again.

We never know what may happen in future and even though they said they will, some might not work with me.

You may feel that what I say is negative, but I am really very positive.

I always believe that clients choose me because of my personality.
If I stay positive and can attract people, that will bring me a good luck.
Even though I like to work with someone, he might not want to work with me, but never mind.
Something new will come in the future.
I will still get in touch with a person like this though, as he might change his mind in future.

Anyway, now I have to do my legal work, do my housework and look after my kid, who is 20 months old.
I found a nursery for him and he goes there from 10am to 2pm every day.
He is very playful and doesn’t sleep much.
He sometimes gives me a hard time but he is still my lovely baby.

Despite my affection to him, I need my own time, too.
I told my husband that he must look after our boy at weekends because I want to have some rest then, as he is busy and has no time for child care on weekdays.
I work hard during the weekdays and want my husband to work hard during the weekends.
So my husband took my baby to a playgroup last Saturday.
There he was said to be amazing, just because he took our son to a playgroup.
Is only taking a baby to somewhere amazing!?!?
Such a traditional country…

Traditionally, raising kids is women’s work and earning money is men’s work in Japan.
Nowadays things are getting changed, and a couple may both work, but still people think that in traditional way.

I hope I can break that rule and that people will become freer to choose work, stay at home, earn money or take longer holidays.

There is one digression, in Japan,it is not appreciated if you take holidays.
People normally take only a week of holidays annually.
If someone took a holiday for a month or two, he might loose his job.

I know a lot of people who have a holiday only once in 3 or 5 years.
Please value the quality of life…

Now we have to think about the balance betwween personal life and work.

Help or not help?

In London, some people say the people are cold, as few people will help a Mum who has a buggy to carry at the stairs at a station.
However, I feel people in London are very friendly.
I was always helped to carry the buggy. Some people offered me help first and others simply just carried it along with me, so I always thought Britain was a country of gentlemen.

Anyway, back to Japan…
Nobody helps me. Never ever.
Even if a person was going downstairs at the same time as me, he just ignored me.
It is like I was not there.
It is so disappointing…
Never mind.
I am strong enough: I can manage it on my own.

One day, a train assistant kindly offered a help, but he said to me, “Please hold your baby and I will carry the buggy downstairs.”
At that time, my baby was sleeping in the buggy and I didn’t want to disturb him and I said, “Would you please carry the buggy with me.”
Then he told me he could not help.

Why not???

I don’t know…

If he helped me to carry the buggy, might he fall over and injure the baby??

I cannot see any point.

Is it a cultural thing?
No. I don’t think so.

However, no worries.
Japan is a high tech country.
At almost all stations, there is a lift!!
That is good news, isn’t it?