Can a neighbour cut/break a tree in my Garden

Can a neighbour arbitrarily take it upon himself to cut a tree in my garden that may slightly invade his airspace as the wind blows ?

No. It's your tree, so the neighbor might ask you if you can trim a bit of that tree because... but cannot just cut it. Is that what happened?

The law says "your neighbor can make you cut it when it invades his property."

Yes, I already had trimmed it so that it didn't encroach upon airspace next to his mutli-story car parking lift, yet coming home yesterday found him hammering away at it, and telling me that it was stretching over his line in the sand between us... Unfortunately he's the neighbour from hell... on our first day here, when the removals company had lent some packing boxes against our shared telegraph pole, he stormed into the house shouting for them to remove them.... this is sadly the latest event. It's taken 10 years to grow, has an amazing blossom in summer that gains the attention of many passers by, now I fear I may have to axe it.

thats terrible ... he has no right to cut it without your consent.
just becareful with him.. he is a bad man .

if he did it to a local police most come there..

but the way you handled peaceful is good .

As far as I read your posts, you have always pulled triggers. Have you talked to him about those things that drove him crazy? Have you apologized even once? Do you have a member who knows Japanese norm and customs in your family, who is expected to point them out?
I think there are much more things he couldn't accept, on your side.
Try talking to him, the tree thing can be a good beginning of a conversation.

According to the law, no one can cut even branches of a tree that is not rooted in that person's own property. I understand your feelings for your tree, because I have some of my own.

That said, it is common for neighbors to communicate with each other and allow each other to freely cut off branches if they are sticking out into their properties while the owner of the tree fails to trim them for one reason or another. Another thing to keep in mind is that, while you may be devoted to your tree that entertains occasional strangers that have no responsibility for it, it is your neighbor that needs to tolerate the shade it makes, sweep away the leaves that blow and the petals that stick to their shiney cars and don't come off because of trees that they may have no love for to begin with.

Additionally, I've also had workers put boards against something in my property without asking me, and it didn't make me feel very good.

So while I can't agree to your neighbor storming or hammering or what not the old-fashioned way, I do try to bow to my neighbors about my tree as frequently as possible, maybe share food gifts that someone gave me, and make sure they "feel" comfortable about their neighbor and her garden.

Perhaps you should talk to a mutual neighbor or even a minsei-iin. I hope you can save your tree.

Yes, my Wife is fluent in Japanese, as too my youngest 10 year old kid, to whom this chap shouted his instructions at last night rather than to me. And yes, I have been continually clipping away the tree, such that it look like a vertical slice has been taken out from it.

What I found odd was, that he was bashing away at the bit that stretched high above the road in front of my house.. which according to the land registry, I own...

I'm not sure how you can infer that I am the cause of the problems... but I guess simply being foreign means that I am so right ? I guess, I have to capitulate and axe the tree. Pity.

Axe the tree if you want, but trees adapt to trimming - even severe trimming. But you would probably please him greatly if you did axe it. Not sure that you want to do that...

I don`t recommend it - but you could politely tell him that the police will be called if he cuts it again. I don`t see the two of you ever becoming friends, so maybe you don`t have much to lose.

Sorry to hear of your situation. There are some people who only loudly assert their views and don't listen to common sense or accommodate decent talks, and your neighbor sounds like he might be one of them.

Usually those little "inconveniences" are brought up in carefully phrased conversations, or the neighbor intentionally sweeps the leaves off the street in front of your eyes to let you know, so that you might say sorry and trim the branches a bit (just enough not to let the branches hang out over his land is sufficient actually), but this neighbor just decided to take it in his hands, and yell, and attack the "offending object" (in his eyes).

Even if the trees don't really shed leaves onto their cars, some people just find the idea of someone else's tree leaves falling on their grounds as annoying, though unreasonable (in my opinion).

Any way you can dig up and re-plant the tree in a different corner, or simply cut off the branches that hang over HIS lot, and you explain to him that now this should be fine, can we let the flowers bloom? Best wishes.

I do not mind, working with people to resolve disputes, so long as they are receptive to doing so - that is afterall what being a Good neighbour is all about, right ?

In my case, it seems I am unfortunately living next door to a far righter who has an Japanese Alpha-male attitude of needing subservience, even though within the culdasac we live within he's not the "leader".

But, as another poster has put it, I must be the cause of all the problems.. though without stating why, I must assume he/they means that it's because I am a foreigner. Sadly they would appear to be right, even though the Law, (as I have subsequently confirmed) suggests that I am in the right, however the Japanese Social etiquette overrides all, and foreigners are just troublemakers regardless whoever is to blame. So the Tree has to go.


As a White person in Japan, the one positive thing, that I have learnt here, is, what it is like to be upon the receiving end of Racism. It's with little wonder, that the Foreign community here is rather closer than in other cities around the World.

Just for reference, I'm Japanese and I've experienced a similar situation here in my country, except that my neighbor didn't shout. Luckily it was one of the trees that I had less love for, so I sawed the bulk of it and dragged it out on garbage day. It is indeed hard when I'm the one who moved in later than the neighbor. I have a Japanese friend who even had to pay a lot of money when her tree was forced to be axed.

I hope tomorrow is a better day for you.

Get the police involved, a bully like your neighbour will pull this again and again and this time you have grounds to complain.

Too often people let it go as they hope things will improve and standing up for yourselves will certainly deteriorate relations with your neighbour but that is just fooling yourself: he broke the law, you got him, next time he is just going to be a pain and bully you guys without you having enough grounds to file a complaint, now is the time to act. Stand up to bullies!