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Summary: General overview of Japan's national legal provisions on children's rights, including guidance on how to conduct further research.
National laws on children's rights Status of CRC in National Law Constitution: While there appear to be no provisions of the Japanese Constitution that specifically address children's rights, article 97 of the Constitution stipulates that fundamental human rights are "conferred upon this and future generations in trust, to be held for all time inviolate." According to the Government's first report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child in 1996, these rights include both civil and political rights (freedom of expression, thought, conscience, religion, etc.) and economic, social and cultural rights (education, minimum standard of "wholesome and cultured living"). Legislation: Japan does not have a comprehensive children's act, and legal provisions on children's rights appear throughout the Penal Code (刑法), Civil Code (民法), Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法), and Code of Civil Procedure (民事訴訟法). Other statutes relating to children include, but are by no means limited to: Legal Research: Compliance with the CRC In depth analysis Case law Case Law Research Current legal reform projects
The Japanese Constitution does not specify the status granted to international treaties in national law, but the prevailing view is that ratified treaties such as the OPSC would take precedence over domestic laws. Japanese courts' ability to invoke or apply the OPSC is also unclear, as the Government of Japan explained in its 2004 report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child that "there is no precedent of a court decision explicitly showing whether or not the direct application of the provisions of the Convention is possible" Although it is not binding, the Government further expressed a viewpoint that "the manner of application should be determined on a case-by-case basis, with due regard to the purpose and content of the provisions of the Convention."
The University of Washington offers a comprehensive guide to legal research in Japan, accessible at http://lib.law.washington.edu/eald/jlr/jres.html. The guide includes a list of Law Collections in English (http://lib.law.washington.edu/eald/jlr/jlrwebresources.htm#LawsinEnglish) and in Japanese (http://lib.law.washington.edu/eald/jlr/jlrwebresources.htm#LawsinJapanese). The Japanese government's official law translation project also offers a searchable database of Japanese laws in English (http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/) and in Japanese (http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/?re=01).
In its 2010 Concluding Observations, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child noted that "certain aspects of domestic legislation, including in the area of juvenile justice, are still not consistent with the principles and provisions of the Convention." In fact, upon ratification of the CRC, Japan did not amend or introduce any legislation to bring its laws into compliance with the Convention. Instead, the government seeks to use the CRC more as a policy tool, in particular informing the National Youth Development Policy. The Committee has further criticised this approach for being neither comprehensive nor rights-based, and has further highlighted numerous violations of children's rights in the country including a low age of criminal responsibility, the legality of some forms of child pornography, and concerns about sexual assault.
CRIN has published a guide to children's CRC rights under Japanese Law (http://crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=21797).
CRC Jurisprudence
The Supreme Court of Japan issued decisions in July 1995 (1991 (Ku) No. 143) and June 2008 (2006 (Gyo-Tsu) No. 135) concerning, respectively, the inheritance rights and right to nationality of children born out of wedlock.
Lists of case law resources are available in English at http://lib.law.washington.edu/eald/jlr/jlrwebresources.htm#CourtDecisionsEnglish and in Japanese at http://lib.law.washington.edu/eald/jlr/jlrwebresources.htm#CourtDecisionsJapanese. Summaries of important recent constitutional, civil and commercial law cases are available in English at http://www.senrei.com/.
Please contact CRIN if you are aware of any current legal reform projects.