Citation:
Q6. My Japanese husband died. I have with me a child from my former husband whom I brought with me from the Philippines, and a child from my husband who died. My husband had a Japanese wife before me and there is a child from that marriage. I don't know how much money my husband left, but do I and my children have any claim to inherit his estate?
A6. If your marriage was a legal one, then you and the child from your husband who died are naturally entitled to inherit. However, your child from the previous marriage, who has no blood connection with your deceased husband, has no such inheritance rights. The child your husband had with his previous wife has inheritance rights too.
The inheritee, that is, your deceased husband, is Japanese, so no matter what the nationality of the inheritor, it comes under Japanese civil law. Therefore, you will inherit half of the estate and your child and the child of the previous wife will each inherit equal parts of the remaining half.
1. Order of inheritance
The legal inheritors are broadly divided into blood and marital heirs. The order among blood relatives is first, children, or children's children, in the case of the children dying before inheriting, second, lineal ascendant (parent or other ancestor), third, siblings, or their children. Blood heirs become heirs only after those ahead in the order of inheritance are unable to inherit, or do not exist. Spouses come alongside no 1, 2 and 3 of the above order, and always inherit. In this case the spouse is the spouse at the time of the death of the deceased (inheritee), so the former wife does not have inheritance rights.
a) Spouse (Article 890 of the Civil Code)
b) Blood-line inheritors
(1)- Children of the deceased (inheritee); both birth children and adopted children (Article 887 of the Civil Code) Unborn children in the womb are considered as children already born (Article 886 of the Civil Code)
(2)-Parents of the deceased (inheritee) in the case when the deceased has no children (Art. 889 of the Civil Code)
(3)- Grandparents of the deceased (when there is no one corresponding to (1) and (2))
(4)- Siblings (when there is no one corresponding to (1) and (2))
2. Legal Inheritance Amount (Art 900 Civil Code)
a) Amount inheritable by spouse
- When inheriting along with children, half of the estate
- When inheriting with direct ascendants (parents or grandparents) of the deceased, two thirds of the estate
- When inheriting with siblings of the deceased, three quarters
When the spouse is the sole inheritor, he/she will inherit the entire estate
b) Amount inheritable by children
When there are several children they inherit each equal amounts of the estate. Even where children are married or have adopted parents (unless this is special adoption) the fact that they are offspring of the deceased does not change, and so there is no change to the amount they are entitled to inherit. As for the child of the previous wife and the child of your marriage with the deceased, they will inherit equal parts of the estate.
However, note that children born before marriage or outside marriage will inherit only a half of a child born within the marriage.
c) Direct ascendants will inherit equal parts between them.
d) Siblings will inherit equal parts between them. (However, half-siblings will inherit only half of what full siblings will inherit.)
Note 1: Provisional clause 4 of Article 900 of the Civil Code holds that illegitimate children will inherit a half of what legitimate children will.
In 1994 the Tokyo High Court decided that this was against the Constitution. (Tokyo High Court Decision, 30th November 1994). However, the Supreme Court overturned this and said that the clause was constitutional (5th July 1995, Supreme Court Main Court Decision.)
Note 2: Sometimes, we get this kind of question from foreign women who have married Japanese men of a very different age to them. We can imagine how anxious one must feel marrying a man from another country, and having that man whom one depends on die before one.
It seems that many women cannot bring themselves to consult when it comes to legal questions like inheritance, and just quietly grieve and worry on their own. Also, the parents or siblings of the deceased Japanese husband tend to control everything, and try and get the foreign wife off home to her own country as soon as possible. Letting women know that they should not be treated unfairly no matter that they are foreigners, while being a perfectly obvious thing, contributes much to their feeling of security.
You do not necessarily have to leave the country straight away when your husband dies, when you are in Japan on a spouse or child of Japanese National. Naturally you will need time to sort things out, and we want you to act upon knowledge of the law so that you will not regret anything.
