support & custody

The basic premise behind child support payments in Japan is to give the child a standard of living enjoyed by the parent with the obligation to pay child support.  These payments can either be determined by a government schedule or through a calculation.  Because court-ordered child support payments are based on a formula and are fairly easy to predict, it usually allows divorcing parties to agree on the amount of child support payments relatively quickly.

The Japanese Family Court encourages mutual agreement between parents of a child in terms of the payment of child support. However, the court is also vested with the power to make child support orders in situations where the parents cannot agree. The amount of child support will be determined by a formula based upon the needs of the custodial parent, the financial assets of the non-custodial parent and any other related circumstances. Since child custody in Japan is always granted as sole custody to one parent, the calculation does not need to consider balancing the burden of child care between […]

There is no space on a divorce by agreement application to assign visitation rights. Instead, upon filing for divorce, a mother and father may sign a notarized agreement that lays out a visitation schedule. However, the enforcement of such an agreement can be difficult as police are reluctance to get involved and there is often not much incentive for either party to refrain from breaking the agreement.