I know there have been many requests here (seems like a common topic), but wanted to share my situation in case someone has good advice and can recommend a lawyer (if necessary?).
I’m an American married to a Japanese, and due to mental abuse + his lack of financial contribution (and his lack of effort to even try), I’m seeking divorce, but am worried about my assets. Fortunately we don’t have kids.
My parents bought our house after we married (it’s under my name but it’s technically my parents’ house and I’ll be returning this place back to them). I have more savings (had higher income) than my husband. Is he eligible to claim these assets? Would it help my case that I also have more medical bills to pay (cancer treatment)?
I read up some Japanese books regarding these issues and it seems like he can claim half of whatever income I made during marriage, but cannot claim anything my parents gave me (before or during marriage). Is this true?
If anyone has any experience/knowledge, I’d greatly appreciate your help.
Not sure if I’ll need an actual lawyer, but if necessary, can anyone give suggestions?
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If your parents gave you the house then did you pay gift tax on it?
(I assume you were on a spouse visa when they gifted you the house? If so then you would have been an “unlimited tax payer” and thus liable for tax on overseas gifts and overseas inheritance)
So, the answer to the above question is maybe (quite likely)- No, I did not pay gift tax on it….
If so, then on record you bought that house, with your household matrimonial money, which makes it a matrimonial asset regardless of gift/inheritance (due to the possibility you did not correctly declare the source of that gift).
Additionally, I am not sure if protection from gifts , works the same as protection from inheritance for matrimonial assets during divorce (happy to be corrected there though).
You’re a US citizen, the US does not recognize divorce by mutal consent, you will need to go to court, you are going to have to get a lawyer.
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hi! i just wanna give my two cents. there are so many tricky things when it comes to breaking up with a japanese, there are some laws that will be considered as bullcrap in other countries but fairly legal in Japan. eg: breaking up with your partner without any believable reasons can get you sued by your partner, even if you’re not married. So i would recommend you going to a lawyer office specialized in 男女関係 ( male-female relationship ) like this one http://www.minamisenju-law.jp/ . I used them a couple of years ago and they done good to me. lawyer offices like this usually offers free consultation for 30 mins at first so you might wanna check on that too. hope this helps and i hope everything goes well!
You probably want to check with a lawyer but what I’ve heard is that generally assets are shared but inheritance and other things kinda directed at one person (which this house definitely seems like) would not be in scope. But if it’s not even in your name… it’s not yours I guess.
Other assets, yeah you probably would need to split assets you accrued _after you got married_ (stuff from before the marriage can be excluded)
Tho really if you do mutual consent it’s basically based on what y’all decide. If you both sign the divorce paper then you’re divorced.
Do you suspect he is going to try get anything out of you? It sounds like you have been providing most of the financial resources. Do you have reason to believe he will still try to get something? In fairness its not as common as you think here that divorces without children involved would end in on party trying to take away what the other has.
What i have seen is a personal settlement of “here is 1-2m yen for wasting your time” which is kinda not much, but usually i have only seen this on the female side.
If you have reason to suspect he will try then just get a lawyer but its probably going to help to move out and live separately asap.