| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
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| Research Abstract |
This research aims at the analysis of the Japanese substantive law of divorce and its procedure in the family court with comparison to the divorce system under German law. The German divorce law went through substantial reforms in 1970s. It shifted to the no-fault rule as the sole ground for divorce. This reform also provided judges with clear criteria in the Civil Code (BGB) for handling the after-divorce matters, such as property division, maintenance, child support and custody.
Furthermore, the German law has adopted a combination system (Verbund) in handling a divorce case. This system ensures that the parties obtain the settlement of important matters regarding the effects of divorce simultaneously with the divorce decision, by enabling the same judge to handle the most important of them, i.e., pension division (Versorgungsausgleich) and custody (elterliche Sorge) authoritatively, as well as other matters, e.g., property settlement (Anspruch aus dem ehelichen Guterrecht), spouse and child support (Unterhalt), and visitation (Umgang) upon a request by a party. This makes it possible for the parties to envisage the consequence of divorce and helps them to attain adequate and preferable result.
In Japan, the law of the civil procedure for personal relationship (jinji-sosho-ho) entered into force on April 1, 2004 transferring the jurisdiction over divorce from the district court to the family court. However, in order to respond to the expectation of those who bring their personal cases to the court, especially divorce, we still need further improvements in regard to the rules both substantive and procedural. Thus, the German experiences in their reforms, which are extremely enlightening in this regard, are fully taken into account in this study.
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