Japan Enacts Bill Overhauling Guardianship System

Tokyo, June 17 (Jiji Press)–The Diet, Japan’s parliament, enacted a bill Wednesday to revise the Civil Code to overhaul the country’s adult guardianship system for people with dementia and others. The House of Councillors, the upper chamber, approved the bill at a plenary meeting by a majority vote, with support from the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party, as well as from the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Democratic Party for the People. The revision, which last month cleared the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, will allow people to opt out of support under the adult guardianship system based on their needs. The current system requires the restoration of decision-making capabilities to terminate such support. It also consolidates the current three types of guardianship, which are based on users’ judgment abilities, into a single category of assistant and allows the setting of assistants’ powers on a case-by-case basis, such as support related to inheritance and real estate sales. Other changes include a new system in which specified assistants can revoke important asset-related transactions when support recipients lack the capacity to make judgments and a family court finds such revocation necessary. Another major item in the bill is the creation of so-called digital wills, which can be created on computers and smartphones, with the data set to be stored at the Justice Ministry’s regional legal affairs bureaus. Testators will be required to read aloud the full text to bureau staff in person or through online meetings, to ensure that wills are not forged or created under duress. The new adult guardianship system is set to start within two years and six months, and the digital wills system within three years. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]