Provisional Minutes of the 30th Meeting of the Family Law Subcommittee of theLegislative Council (provisional translation)
On August 29, 2023, the 30th meeting of the Family Law Subcommittee of theLegislative Council was held at the Ministry of Justice (in person and online). Nearly all
the members and non-voting members attended the meeting. The Chairman, Prof.
OMURA Atsushi, presided over the meeting.
Presented the draft of the proposed outline with the full picture of the issues based on
the deliberations up to the third round along with a supplementary explanation, theSubcommittee discussed the following issues.
With regard to the basic rules concerning the parent-child relationship, theSubcommittee discussed the rules that should be established to define parental duties andresponsibilities of the parent-child relationship, and many members and non-voting
members agreed to establish such rules. It was also agreed that the duties andresponsibilities of the parents should be discussed in more detail.
With regard to the rule concerning the exercise of parental authority, the Subcommittee
discussed the proposals: 1) if parental authority is granted to both parents, they should
exercise parental authority jointly; however, if there are pressing circumstances in the bestinterests of the child or when they perform daily activities related to child custody andtheir child’s education, etc., one parent may solely exercise parental authority, and 2) if
the parents are still unable to reach an agreement on the exercise of parental authority
over specific arrangements, a family court may determine that one parent may solely
exercise parental authority over the relevant arrangements.
Moreover, with regard to the framework for determining parental authority afterdivorce (on the condition that the provisions of the current Civil Code stating that parents
or the court must determine either of the parents as the person with parental authority areamended), the Subcommittee discussed the proposals: 1) if parents divorce by agreement,
the parents should determine one or both parents as the person who has parental authority
through negotiations, 2) in the case of judicial divorce, the court should determine one orboth parents as having parental authority, 3) when the judge makes the decision, he/sheshould consider the parent-child relationship and relationship between the parents, and 4)
if the parents reached the agreement in an inappropriate way, in the case of divorce byagreement, etc., the court may modify its decision on parental authority if a petition tochange parental authority was filed.
With regard to the custodial parent, on the condition that parents are not alwaysrequired to determine either parent as the custodial parent, the Subcommittee discussed
the proposal: If the person who has custody was determined by the court, physical custody
may be granted solely to that person, and a person who does not have custody may also
perform daily activities related to child custody and the child’s education to the extent
that the person does not prevent the person who has parental authority from exercising
the right to have the child in his/her care.
There were different views regarding these issues, and some agreed to the details of thedraft while others suggested changes. However, the Subcommittee did not reach aconclusion during the meeting due to time constraints and decided to discuss the issues at
the next meeting.
The Subcommittee will discuss the issues, including the other arrangements (childsupport payments, parent-child visitation, adoption, equitable distribution of property,etc.) which are included in the draft.
※These provisional minutes are the summarized results of the subcommittee meeting and are to beprovided by the Secretariat of the Subcommittee in both Japanese and English on an as-neededbasis. The official meeting minutes (in Japanese) will be published at a later date.