JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Takefumi Sato, Aoi Inoue, Kosuke Tsunashima and Ryohei Ikeda, Anderson Mori & Tomotsune
Anderson Mori & Tomotsune Otemachi Park Building 1-1-1 Otemachi Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-8136 Japan
Tel: +81 3 6775 1073 Fax: +81 3 6775 2073 Email: takefumi.sato@amt-law.com Web: www.amt-law.com
1. Identifying Assets in the Jurisdiction 1.1 Options to Identify Another Party’s Asset Position The measures available to a creditor seeking to iden - tify the assets of another party differ depending on whether a judgment in favour of the creditor has already been rendered. Pre-Judgment Measures Registered assets The ownership of certain types of properties is regis - tered with the relevant authorities, but this information – although publicly available – can only be accessed in certain circumstances. Information on land parcels and buildings/houses (including the name of the own - er), for example, is registered with the real property registry at the Legal Affairs Bureau and any person can access it by obtaining a copy of the registration. However, while the real property registration can be accessed by specifying the address of the property, this information cannot be searched for using the name of the owner. Therefore, it is possible to find out who owns a specific piece of real property through this system, but not which real properties are owned by a specific person. Requests for information via the Bar Association A Japanese lawyer can request the disclosure of all documents and information necessary to collect evidence and conduct their investigations from any
public or private organisation/entity via a relevant Bar Association, under the Lawyers Act. Occasionally, the recipient of such a request will refuse to disclose the desired information, due to confiden - tiality obligations. Banks do not usually disclose any information concerning their customers, for example, unless the customer consents to the disclosure. Provisional attachment order Provisional attachment is a preliminary relief to secure the subsequent enforcement of an eventual monetary judgment by prohibiting the debtor from disposing of their assets. The court will issue an ex parte provisional attachment order if a creditor can substantiate an underlying claim and demonstrate an imminent risk that the assets are likely to be disposed of before the judgment is enforced. However, provisional attachment is not a measure to search out the debtor’s assets; rather, the creditor must identify the assets to be preserved. Exceptional circumstances in which provisional attachment may be used to find out the debtor’s assets include where receivables are owed to the debtor by a third party, who would then be required to confirm certain information regarding the receivables owed (such as the amount thereof). The creditor may be able to identify those specific receivables before initiating a lawsuit by virtue of this confirmation.
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