Ohara & Furukawa

December 13, 2017

What should be included in a Letter of Guarantee for a Japanese visa?

A letter of guarantee required by some Japanese visa applications is a relatively simple one page document.  It should contain the relevant information of the foreign national and the guarantor but it should also describe their relationship, whether this be friends, relatives or coworkers.  In the letter, the guarantor should promise to provide logistical support for the foreign national as well as transportation fee for the trip back to his or her home country.  Finally, the guarantor must also swear that the foreign national will abide by Japanese law while staying in Japan.
December 11, 2017

What is a Settlement Agreement?

A settlement agreement usually has two main parts.  First, it should include a waiver of legal liability for disputes arising out of the same issue.  This provides protection for the parties from a lawsuit over the same issue in the future.  Second, it should contain some transfer of assets or rights in exchange for waiving the right to sue.  This transfer will often be based upon what the wronged party might expect to win if the issue were litigated in court, but will usually be reduced by a fair amount to reflect the time and expense saved by not litigating […]
December 8, 2017

Does a company have to give notice before firing an employee in Japan?

In Japan, employers must usually give at least 30 days notice before terminating an employee’s employment contract.  If the employer gives less than the required notice, he or she must make up for the lack of notice by paying a full day’s salary for each day the notice was insufficient.
December 7, 2017

What are an author’s moral rights?

Moral rights differ from normal rights to a copyright in that they serve to protect an author’s image even in cases where there is otherwise no infringement.  For example, an author’s moral rights might be violated when his or her work is used in a way that damages the author’s reputation, such as if a composer’s religious hymn is used as the background music for a pornographic movie.  Even if this behavior would otherwise not infringe on the author’s copyright, the author may claim that his or her moral rights have been infringed by use of the work.