International Jurisdiction in Divorce Cases

The Personal Status Litigation Act was amended particially. The international jurisdiction over personal status cases was specified in Article 3-2.

The amendment came into effect on April 1, 2019.

According to the Article 3-2, filing suits to Japanese courts are granted  when;
(i) a defendant’s domicile (if the defendant has no domicile, their domicile is unknown, the defendant’s residence) is in Japan(paragraph 1);
(ii) both the husband and the wife have Japanese nationality (paragraph 5);
(iii) the last mutual domicile of the husband and the wife was in Japan and the plaintiff’s domicile is in Japan (paragraph 6);
(iv) there are special circumstances, such as a situation when the plaintiff’s domicile is in Japan and the defendant has went missing, that it would be equitable to either party, or a fair and speedy trial can be guaranteed if the Japanese courts were to conduct a trial and reach a judicial decision in the action (paragraph 7), etc.

The English translation is a provisional one and is not an official translation.