International Inheritance and Wills

When to contact us

• You are a foreign national with permanent residence in Japan and want to leave a will covering your assets in Japan
• The deceased was a foreign national, and bank accounts or real estate in Japan cannot be released
• Some of the heirs live outside Japan and the required documents cannot be gathered
• You are in an international marriage and do not know which country’s law applies
• You want to be certain that your foreign spouse or children receive your assets in Japan
• The inheritance is entirely within Japan, but you do not know where to start

Three ways international inheritance differs

1. Which country’s law applies is decided first.

Under Japanese law, inheritance is governed by the national law of the deceased (Act on General Rules for Application of Laws, Article 36). If the deceased was a foreign national, that country’s inheritance law is the starting point — and who the heirs are, and what each receives, may differ from the Japanese Civil Code.

🔴 However, this is not decided by nationality alone. Where the real estate is located also matters. China applies the law of the deceased’s habitual residence, and the law of the location for real estate. Vietnam applies national law, but the exercise of inheritance rights over real estate follows the law of the location. If there is real estate in those countries, the outcome may differ from the Japanese result.

2. A will is assessed separately for its form and its content.

The creation and effect of a will are governed by the national law of the testator at the time it was made (same Act, Article 37). The form of a will is governed separately by the Act on the Law Applicable to the Form of Wills, under which a will is valid as to form if it complies with any one of several laws, including the law of the place where it was made.

⇒ To avoid “valid at home but unusable in Japan” — or the reverse — we design where and in what form the will is made at the outset.

3. Establishing the heirs where there is no family register.

Japan uses the family register (koseki) to establish who the heirs are. Most countries have no equivalent system. Birth, marriage and death certificates must be obtained from the home country and assembled, with translations, into a form that demonstrates these are all of the heirs. In international cases this takes the most time.

Inheritance has pitfalls that have nothing to do with tax

Most people think of inheritance as a tax question. Separate from tax, Japanese civil law contains several traps.

These are general explanations of the Japanese system. The outcome in any particular case depends on the circumstances.

What we can and cannot do

We can:

• Investigate the heirs (obtaining and reading family registers; obtaining and checking foreign public documents)
• Investigate the estate (real estate, bank deposits, securities)
• Check whether a will exists (the notaries’ will search system; the certificate of the fact of will custody held by the Legal Affairs Bureau)
• Prepare a chart of family relations and an inventory of the estate
• Draft a will, liaise with the notary office, and serve as one of the witnesses to a notarized will
• Prepare the estate division agreement
• Handle inheritance procedures with financial institutions
• Translate, or arrange translation of, foreign-language documents
• Certification of documents for use abroad (apostille, authentication and consular legalization — see Apostille & Consular Legalization)

We cannot (we will refer you):

If a dispute arises among the heirs, a gyoseishoshi is not permitted by law to continue acting. In that event we will resign and refer you to an attorney. We explain this before we begin, and it is written into the engagement agreement.

⚠️ We do not estimate tax. Under the Certified Tax Accountant Act, tax consultation may not be provided by anyone other than a certified tax accountant, even free of charge. Where inheritance tax may be involved, we will advise you to consult a tax accountant early.

Four things to know

1. Bank accounts are frozen. Once you notify a financial institution of the death, the account is frozen. If living expenses are paid from it, we will decide together when to give that notice.
2. Renunciation of inheritance has a three-month deadline — three months from when you learn that the inheritance has commenced (Civil Code art. 915(1)). If there is any possibility of debts, this must be assessed first.
3. We always check whether a will exists. A will that surfaces after the estate has been divided means starting again, or a dispute.
4. Registering inherited real estate has been mandatory since 1 April 2024. The registration must be filed within three years of the day you learn that you have acquired the property through inheritance, and failing to do so without justifiable grounds can result in a non-penal fine of up to ¥100,000 (Real Property Registration Act arts. 76-2 and 164(1)). Inheritances that began before 31 March 2024 are also covered — if you already know that the inheritance has commenced, the deadline is 31 March 2027. Many countries impose no comparable obligation, so this is easy to overlook. The registration itself is work for a judicial scrivener (shiho-shoshi); we carry out the investigation and prepare the estate division agreement that precede it, and introduce you to one.

Fees

• We calculate fees at ¥8,000 per hour (excl. tax) × hours, and provide an itemized breakdown by task with the quotation.
• Our minimum fee is ¥100,000 excl. tax. Collecting and reading family registers is unavoidable in every inheritance matter.
• Disbursements are charged separately (notary fees, certificate issuance fees, postage, and travel outside Miyazaki Prefecture). Visits within Miyazaki Prefecture, including accompanying you to government offices, notary offices and banks, involve no travel charge.
• A notarized will requires two witnesses. We serve as one; the second is either introduced by the notary office (for a fee) or arranged by you. Presumptive heirs, beneficiaries, their spouses and lineal relatives cannot serve as witnesses (Civil Code art. 974).
• Because the work actually performed and the expenses settled may differ, the invoiced amount may differ from the quotation.

How it works

1. Contact us (booking page, LINE, telephone or email)
2. First consultation — online, free for up to 60 minutes
3. Quotation, itemized by task. You may decline at this point
4. Engagement and commencement

📌 Consultations are held online (web conferencing).