The Legislative Council, an advisory body to the justice minister, is now discussing a revision to the part of the Civil Code related to inheritance, with a view to increasing surviving spouses' shares of estates. The council should deliberate carefully so that the proposed amendment, which the Justice Ministry hopes to submit to the Diet, would be acceptable in a society experiencing diversification in the forms of marriage and family amid the rapidly graying population.

The council's discussions were prompted by a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that found unconstitutional the Civil Code's stipulation in Article 900 that the share of inheritance for a child born out of wedlock should be half that of a legitimate child. While the article has since been revised, the ministry launched a working group to review all of the Civil Code's provisions dealing with inheritance. A report compiled by the group in January serves as the foundation for the council's discussions.

A major point of the report is a proposal that estates of the deceased be divided into two portions — one that was built up jointly by couples during their marriages and the other representing what deceased spouses already owned prior to getting married. As a means of increasing the inheritance of surviving spouses, the report proposed that their share in inheritance from the first portion of the estate be made larger than that of the children.

The report also calls for revising a rule concerning the contributory portion of inheritance. It proposes that if the surviving spouse contributed greatly to the nursing care and recuperation of the deceased spouse, that person be given a greater portion of the estate than otherwise. Another proposal is for creating a spouse's right of residence, which would enable the surviving spouse to continue to live gratis in the couple's residence.

The general direction of the Legislative Council's report deserves support. The wife's position in matters related to inheritance as prescribed in the Civil Code, which was originally enacted during the Meiji Era, is still weak despite a partial revision in the postwar period. A change to the system is inevitable.

What is practically important is how to revise the system of dividing a legacy into a portion to which legal heirs — currently the surviving spouse, children and parents — are legally entitled to and another portion which can be divided among surviving relatives.

To help settle disputes that occur among surviving relatives over inheritance, the report proposes adjudication by family court judges in addition to settlement via mediation by family courts and civil lawsuits. A system that can settle such disputes quickly and flexibly should be instituted.

There are opinions that the provisions for inheritance need a more extensive overhaul than proposed by the report. The part of the Civil Code concerning the family contains many issues related to married couples and parental relationships that need to be reviewed. The council needs to broaden its discussions.