Empirical Research on Dispute Systems for Divorce

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K01096
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 05010:Legal theory and history-related
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Saito Hiroharu 東京大学, 社会科学研究所, 准教授 (20779392)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 法社会学 / 紛争解決 / 子どもの権利 / 離婚 / 面会交流 / 養育費

Outline of Final Research Achievements

I conducted an online survey of 3,000 people who have divorced in the past 20 years in Japan. This study analyzes the existence of child support and visitation arrangements (not mandatory upon divorce in Japan) and their changes over the 20 years. As a result, the actual rates of arrangements were much lower than the official statistics, which were published by the Ministry of Justice based on the check-box answers on divorce registration forms. In addition, although there has been an upward trend in the rate of both child support and visitation agreements over the 20 years, the new divorce registration form (started in April 2012) and the nationwide distribution of pamphlets (started in October 2016) were found to have no direct effect on the rate.

Free Research Field

法社会学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

日本における離婚については、紛争解決という観点からの体系的かつ実証的な実態調査はこれまでほとんどなされてこなかった。そのため、定量的な統計データが不足している。特に子どもが絡む養育費や面会交流の定め方・履行方法については、長年の社会問題となってきた。養育費・面会交流の取決め実態を解明すべく、本研究では、過去20年間の子ありでの離婚経験者3000人を対象にオンラインでの質問票調査を実施した。他機関が過去に実施した類似調査等と比べると、最も大規模な子ありでの離婚経験者調査であり、かつ過去20年間の経年変化の解明を試みた点に特徴がある。