REVISED CENSUS(FAMILY)REGISTRATION LAW, 1948
Site Ed: Another far-reaching legal reform of the Occupation period dealt with family registration. In January 1948, the Family Census Registration Law was amended to accord with the new Constitution and new Civil Code: equality of the sexes and equal inheritance rights. Here, too, many of the specific changes reflected prewar debate among Japanese reformers. The revised Family Registration Law would affect every individual Japanese from birth to death. This is the law which liberated Japanese from the ie (household) by ending the old koseki (family register) system. Specifically, it removed the power, influence, and obligations of the old family system, centering on a single male head of the house. All members were registered in one family register, and no changes were possible without the consent of the patriarch. In the new system, registers were to be made up for each individual or family within district. The family consisted of husband and wife and their minor children, natural and adopted as well as children born out of wedlock but recognized by the father. Registers were required for marriage, birth of a child, divorce, remarriage, adoption, attaining majority and separating from the parent’s register, and naturalization.
As an Occupation press release declared in October 1948, the most important point of the law was the "complete abolition" of the head of the household system. It gave assurances that "the family in Japanese society is still paramount but registration thereof is limited to include, at the most, the husband and wife and their immediate children." It would of course take time for true change both in urban and village settings.
The new law, very long and highly technical, covered registration in family registers, notifications, births, recognition, adoption, dissolution of adoption, marriage, divorce, parental power and guardianship, death and disappearance, disinheritance of a presumptive successor, entry into or separation from a family register, acquisition or loss of nationality, alternation of name, transfer of registered locality and establishment of a family-register, and rectification of family-registers. It is not surprising that the law had to be explained over and over. It was difficult for many Japanese to comprehend that every married couple (whether in villages, towns, wards, and cities) would be regarded as a separate family and separate household unit. Any married man could be regarded as the head of a family; an unmarried own of adult age could also create her own family and household. Women could be guardians of their children or obtain a divorce on equal grounds with men.
The key paragraph was contained in Article Six, Chapter II, Registration Books [koseki] of Family:
"Any Family Register shall be made up for each husband and wife who have their registered locality within the district of City, Town or Village and their children, whose surnames are the same as that of such husband and wife but in cases where a family register is newly made up for any person having no spouse, it shall be made up for such person and his children whose surnames are the same as that of such person."
Under the new Family Registration Law and new Civil code, domestic relations courts were established an over 275 localities throughout Japan and began functioning in January 1948. The great worry of Japanese critics came true: an increase in the number of applications for divorce.
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Reference
Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (Government Section). The Political Reorientation of Japan, September 1945 to September 1948. Vol II, Appendices. Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949; 1076
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