Japan court rejects damages suit over constitutionality of surname rule for married couples
The Tokyo District Court on Monday rejected a damages suit against the state by a lawyer and his wife who argued that the country's law forcing married couples to use the same surname is unconstitutional. Hiroki Deguchi, a lawyer who belongs to the Tokyo Bar ...
Cybozu chief Yoshihisa Aono loses lawsuit at Tokyo court over right to use premarital name
A Tokyo court on Monday upheld a national law that forces couples to use the same surname upon marriage, rejecting claims over its unconstitutionality. The lawsuit against the central government was brought by Yoshihisa Aono, the 47-year-old president of software development firm Cybozu Inc., and ...
Osaka High Court upholds male-only right to deny legal fatherhood status
Current law leaves many women and children in legal limbo after an acrimonious divorce or abusive marriage that cannot be dissolved without a fleeing wife disclosing her location.
Stop worrying about the age of adulthood
Media apprehension about lowering the legal age of majority has been wildly overblown.
Japan's Diet OKs law lowering age of adulthood to 18
The Diet passes a package of amendments that — for the first time in 140 years — includes a measure lowering adulthood to 18 years old from the current 20.
The government has decided to introduce legislation toward lowering the legal age of adulthood from 20 to 18 when the Diet opens in January. It is also slated to remove a clause in the Imperial House Law that sets the emperor's age of majority ...
Without an official father, kids can be stateless
On Nov. 29, the Kobe District Court dismissed a suit against the state filed by a woman in her 60s who claimed that the law that allows only men to deny paternity of a child is unconstitutional, since it discriminates against women. She said ...
A court on Wednesday found constitutional a legal provision that allows only men and not women to file a lawsuit denying the legal fatherhood of a child, dismissing a claim filed against the state by a family for damages related to the accuracy of ...
How Japan got new contract law it neither wants nor needs
One possible explanation for the inexplicable change in contract law: It is a giant experiment driven by academic hubris and bureaucratic ambition.
Smoking and drinking ban to remain despite lowering of age of adulthood
Adults under age 20 still won't be able to buy cigarettes or alcohol despite proposed legal changes to lower the age of adulthood to 18, National Police Agency officials said Wednesday. Even with an amended Civil Code, the agency is considering retaining the drinking and ...
Bill to lower age of adulthood set for submission to Diet in fall
New Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa says her ministry might submit a bill to lower the legal age of adulthood from 20 to 18 this fall.
Civil Code revised to clarify contract terms for consumers and businesses
The Diet on Friday revised the Civil Code to clarify the terms of contracts between businesses and consumers for online shopping, life insurance and other transactions. The revision sets forth criteria for when the terms of contract can be nullified. For example, terms deemed one-sidedly disadvantageous ...
