Money Matters - No.3

The Japanese government has at last made the first step toward a fairer society.

On January 16, 2018, the Legislative Council for the Justice Ministry on Civil Law released proposals on the revision of inheritance related law.

http://www.moj.go.jp/content/001246034.pdf

The major items include the following:

1. Division of right to a home into the right of residence and the right of ownership and granting the right of residence to the surviving spouse even if he or she has no right of ownership

2. Allowing a relative with no right of inheritance to seek financial compensation for his or her caregiving to the decedent  

Both revisions are mostly intended to protect women. For example, in the case 1, the newly established right of residence will prevent surviving wives from being evicted by other heirs.

Also, in the case 2, relatives (e.g., the wife of the eldest son of a family) who provided care to the decedent (e.g., her father or mother in law) may seek financial compensation against the decedent’s children. Under the current law, these women have no right of inheritance and as cheap domestic labor, are the major and sometimes only caregiver to their fathers and mothers in law.

The motive for these revisions is not to help these exploited women who have been looking after their husbands’ parents all by themselves free of charge, but to encourage them to keep doing so in exchange for fee paid by their family members. The government is so desperate to reduce medical costs.

But whatever the real motive is, these are good things, aren’t they? The government has finally recognized the importance of the financial reward for such care services, whether provided by professional caregivers or family members.

However, issues remain. First, how about relatives who have the right of inheritance and provided care? Won't they be rewarded for their services even if they look after their parents all by themselves? It is frequent in Japan that one of the siblings, chosen whatever the reason is, has to take care of his or her parent(s) all by him/herself and even sometimes loses his/her job because it was too hard to juggle work and caregiving, and ends up being evicted by other vulture like siblings after the parent's death. 

If you are interested in a terrible case in which children who did not take care of their parents at all, but ultimately evict their sibling who had been the sole caregiver, please read the below post.

http://keinarujima.blogspot.jp/2017/12/money-may-not-matter-to-you-but-to-me.html

Those who provide care should all be compensated for their work. Care services are not something you can expect on a goodwill basis, but should be financially compensated for as other jobs are. 

The last but not the least is that common marriages will remain out of the scope. In other words, one common-law partner may not be the other partner's heir and this will remain as it is. I will talk about this in another post.