The empirical strategy we employ in this study is to investigate the division of bequests among children in Japan to understand parental bequest motives. While the fact that in Japan inherited assets are divided through family negotiations implies that the observed patterns reflect not only the motives of decedents but also those of heirs, it is very likely that heirs' choices reflect the values shared by their family, including traditional Japanese family values. Furthermore, to shed more light on parental motives, we compare the patterns of bequest division between when a parent dies before his/her spouse (i.e., a primary inheritance) and when the second parent subsequently also dies (i.e., a secondary inheritance). In the former case, the surviving spouse has the opportunity to express his/her opinion and to play a leading role as an advocate of the decedent in dividing the bequest. Therefore, it is likely that the resulting patterns of bequest division in primary inheritances reflect parental bequest motives more clearly than those in secondary inheritances.

Unfortunately, similar studies comparing primary and secondary inheritances in the United States are unavailable, probably because observations on bequest division among children in primary inheritance are very limited. In the United States, when a decedent does not leave a valid will assets are divided among heirs in line with state laws on intestacy. In the case of primary inheritances, state laws typically designate a large share of a bequest to be reserved for the spouse (with the remainder to be divided equally among children). More specifically, in states that have adopted the Uniform Probate Code (UPC), assets are passed on in their entirety to the surviving spouse if all surviving descendants of the decedent are also descendants of the surviving spouse. While the formula for the division of bequests among heirs differs across states that have not adopted UPC, a typical allocation would give the first $50,000 of a bequest plus half of everything above $50,000 to the spouse. Therefore, as long as bequests do not exceed a specific threshold (e.g., $50,000), there is no bequest division among children in primary inheritances in the United States.

As preparation for our regression analysis, we start with a descriptive examination of whether bequest shares in Japan deviate from statutory shares. While it is common to divide inherited assets among heirs through negotiations, present civil law specifies the statutory shares that heirs should receive if no will has been left and they cannot reach agreement on how a bequest should be divided. In the case of a married couple with children, the law designates the decedent's spouse and children as the heirs-at-law. While the spouse is entitled to receive half of the bequest in a primary inheritance, the remaining half would be equally distributed to the children. In a secondary inheritance, the decedent's children are the heirs-at-law and bequests would be equally divided only among them. Therefore, if in a secondary inheritance inherited assets are divided equally among children, there should be no deviation from the statutory shares. In contrast, if inherited assets are divided unequally among children, we would observe deviations of the actual