The Civil Code is set to undergo the first major revisions since it was enacted in 1896 in areas related to business activities and people's daily lives. It is inevitable that the interests of various parties, including businesses and consumers, will clash in amending the code, but the Justice Ministry should uphold the principle of protecting the interests of consumers as the bottom line.
One of the aims of the revisions is to make the law easier to understand for ordinary citizens. The Justice Ministry presented a revision draft to the Civil Code section of the Legislative Council, an advisory body for the justice minister, in late August. After receiving a report from the section, the ministry will draft legislation to amend the code and submit it to the Diet next year.
Compared with the civil codes of Western countries, Japan's civil code has much fewer clauses because it has omitted widely accepted principles. This has enabled flexible interpretations, and Japan has coped with various problems by resorting to legal precedents set by courts.