Recently a Japanese friend asked me about the prevalence of inheritance disputes in my home country, and I really had to stop and think about it. I realized that yes, they do happen sometimes but generally families try to settle things as smoothly and equitably as possible.
My friend is caught up in a very ugly dispute with her siblings at the moment, and it has ripped the family apart. I’ve heard similar stories from other Japanese friends and students and I think that Japan takes it to a whole new level in terms of nastiness and pettiness.
I’m not sure of the reasons, but I’m aware of the eldest son thing, and also the huge sums of money involved (at least, compared to my home country).
Do you have any firsthand experience in Japan?
3 comments
Firsthand, nah, but I’ve known a couple people who had free use of a couple plots of land for decades or longer because the heirs were going round and round disputing it. They used it for gardens, storage, dog rescue etc.
A mentally ill woman in my town was living in a gomiyashiki on a plot that originally belonged to the family patriarch. It was divided up into percentages and smaller plots for the heirs who had their houses but decades on most of them agreed to sell the land to a developer.
But the mentally ill woman didn’t want to move even though the family was setting her up in an apartment and were going to pay her rent/gas/power/water (they were already paying those and the house taxes anyway). I was involved somewhat as the woman was known in the area with the rescue organizations and authorities.
Quite a hubbub with the family, developers, elder services, volunteers and neighbors both supportive and not so much. All at the height of corona too. The family wanted to sell but the developers weren’t going to pay until the woman was out. As you can imagine, a lot of people couldn’t see eye to eye on the situation. Drove a bit of a wedge between me and some other volunteers due to difference of opinion.
Eventually, the woman was moved to the apartment, her cats were rescued, the family got their money and the land was developed into several new homes. But it took years.
Yeah I know a case where the hanko of the near deceased was used to stamp a bunch of things to screw over other relatives
Yeah disputes can happen and get ugly. Thankfully the law is quite strict and ensure everyone has a fair share (France).