Anyone know any unique laws about Japan?

I'm doing a project and connot find any good web sites...

I was always amazed about one law when I was there. There is a statute of limitation to murder. I don't exactly remember how many years. Once in a while, there would be somebody who confesses a murder the day after the statute of limitation is over.

Check this out. Japan has this law.

Chad

Drinking alcohol in public areas are permitted unless there is a city or town ordinance against it. I remember buying beer at a vending machine at Himeji Station and walk along the boulevard with beer in hand towards the Himeji Castle. That was a liberatingfeeling!

On the other hand, I remember a friend of mine from Japan visiting Hawaii and he was arrested in Waikiki because he was walking with a wine glass in his hand.

Chad

''Unique'' depends on what your standards are. For example, if I understand it correctly, some states in the U.S. do seem to have statute of limitation to murder.

I can't really tell if a law is unique to Japan or unique to the U.S. or whatever country you are from, but in Japan it is not against the law to leave your young children alone at home or inside your own car. I recall a famous incident where a family was traveling for a short time in the U.S. and left their child sleeping in their car while they were shopping at a supermarket. They came back to the car only to be handcuffed and sent to court parted from their child, which is hard to imagine if you were in Japan.

Also, I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the law, but in Japan it is common, and in fact encouraged, for a father to bath naked with his small daughter if she's say about 6 or 7. A Japanese daughter talked about her bathing experience with her father at her school in the U.S., and her teacher refused to send her back home thinking it was abuse.

A law that is indeed unique to Japan with the exception of a few countries like the UK is that you must drive on the left side of the road.

An interesting thing we noticed was that magic mushrooms were not against the law until recently (about 5 years ago, if I remember correctly). This is in no way because the mushrooms were commonly consumed here in Japan, but it's because no one used it. The Japanese society has been one of the most anti-drug ones in the world. Some curious Japanese citizens would bother to travel overseas in hope to experience magic mushrooms, and little did we know it was legal here until the media reported it ''became'' illegal.

There are no states in the USA with statute of limitation for First Degree Murder.

Here's a quote from a Legal website:

Criminal Law
What Is The Statute Of Limitations On Murder?

First, by explanation, a statute of limitations refers to the time period within which a prosecution must be commenced. A prosecution after that date is not allowed, even if the defendant is factually guilty.
There are three main purposes to a statute of limitations. First, it protects a person from being interminably under the threat of possible criminal prosecution and forced to defend a case after defense witnesses may have died, disappeared, or otherwise become unavailable. Second, it protects individuals from having to defend themselves against charges when the passage of time is likely to prevent them from fully investigating the facts of the crime. Third, it encourages law enforcement officials to promptly investigate suspected criminal activity.

Every state has a statute of limitations for crimes, but the laws differ from state to state. In addition, different offenses are controlled by different periods of limitation.

However, no state has a statute of limitations on first degree murder. It can be prosecuted at any time. For other degrees of murder, there may be a time after which a prosecution cannot be brought. For example, in your state, Florida, second degree murder, third degree murder, and manslaughter all provide for a four year statute of limitations.

This can work to the defendant's disadvantage. For example, let's say you are charged with first degree murder five years after the crime. You want to argue that you are guilty only of manslaughter. Because the statute of limitations has passed, the Judge will not provide the jury with an instruction allowing it to consider the lesser crime against you. It will be either murder one or nothing. In such instances, a defendant may seek to waive the statute of limitations on the lesser crime so that the jury may consider it.

In sum, if the state develops new evidence to show a person has committed first degree murder, the charge can be brought at any time. If the new evidence suggests a lesser degree of murder or manslaughter, the charge must be brought within the state's statute of limitations for such lesser crime.

-- Jeralyn Merritt

Chad

Birth control pills were illegal in Japan until June 1999 when the Japanese Ministry of Health yielded to the demands of doctors in Japan and pharmaceutical giants. Until 1999, birth control pills were legal only for therapeutic reasons. Thus Japanese women had only condoms, IUDs and abortions as their options.

Other than some other Islamic countries and Conservative Christian nations, this is a rare, of course not unique, law.

Chad

Are we talking about the law which is unique to Japan, or just difference in laws or customs between Japan and the US???

So far I don't find anything unique about the laws mentioned. Unique would imply Japan only, rather than different limits, or uncommon laws.

However, right now there is a law concerning paternity that is under much discussion and may be unique to Japan.

If a woman were to divorce her husband, and have a child within 6 months of divorce, then the baby is legally the child of her ex-husband.

I'm not sure the exact wording though, but it seems that this law is under fire and may soon be changed.

To Alica Rae Smith, yllwsmrf, by.(guest), Uco,

It seems there are no unique laws in Japan today. After all, after WWII, Japan wrote an modern constitution similar to British Parlimentary and US Constitutional laws. Political, religious, ethnic, criminal and individual issues are very similar to many other laws of civilized nations.

Chad

Article 9 in our constitution is said to be pretty unique to Japan. I failed to notice that if a local were to be asked what's unique about laws in Japan, the answer would most likely to be "Article 9." The Japanese constitution is so-called "peace constitution." War is against the law here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_9_of_the_Constitut...

Certainly, as Uco writes, Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution is unique in that Japan is the only country in the world that renounces War. However, in spite of some opposition within and from outside like China and Korea, the government had made serveral different interpretations, The first was that it was OK to have defense forces for purely defensive purposes. Later this was extended to also mean peacekeeping forces and thus Japan sent a non-combatant peacekeeping troops to Iraq. Recently the Japanese Navy was sent to Somalia to join the international forces trying to prevent piracy.

The Italian Constitution Article 11 is differnt from Japan's Article 9. The Italian version states that they will not maintain a military force capable of fighting a war. The Italian miliary force can only be used as in peacekeeping mission. Thus Italy sent a small contingent force ofr peackeeping to Iraq. Italian Navy recently sent several destroyer to Somalia as well.

In effect, Italy came to the same conclusion as Japan.

But still Japan's Article 9 is Unique.

Chad

If a woman were to divorce her husband, and have a child within 6 months of divorce, then the baby is legally the child of her ex-husband.

I was talking to some friends about this over the weekend and it seems that I didn't get it entirely right. It turns out that in addition to paternity, a woman can't get remarried within 6 months of a divorce. Meanwhile the time limit doesn't apply to men.

funny enough last week I watched a US movie about a young US woman living in France whose French husband wanted a divorce. He could remarry right after the divorce but she--being pregnant-- couldn't remarry for 6 months after the birth. The whole set up of that part of the story was meant to show how weird French laws were... the irony about that law is that it was meant to ensure that the paternity of the child --and its financial support by the father--weren't in doubt BUT there is the famous story about a French Emperor. When he was born naturally, and not prematuraly by all accounts, his mother said something like "oh my! I dated 3 men exactly 9 months ago.." As Chadperson notes many countries have similar laws nowadays. The Japanese law on paid holidays for example that is talked about in another post is similar to the one we have in Canada. and in other countries. The actual number of vacation days per year is the only difference.