JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Takefumi Sato, Aoi Inoue, Kosuke Tsunashima and Ryohei Ikeda, Anderson Mori & Tomotsune
2.4 Post-Judgment Procedures for Determining Defendants’ Assets
have agreed not to enforce, the court must declare in its judgment that the judgment is not enforceable. 2.7 Register of Domestic Judgments There is no organised system in Japan to register judgments. 3. Foreign Judgments 3.1 Legal Issues Concerning Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Japan is not a signatory to any international treaties or conventions for the enforcement of foreign judg - ments. However, Japanese law does prescribe that judgments rendered by foreign courts can be enforced in Japan if certain statutory prerequisites are met. Judgment of Execution Articles 22 and 24 of the Civil Execution Act establish the framework under which a foreign judgment may be enforced in Japan. Article 22 allows for a foreign judgment to be enforced if, among other things, it is a “judgment rendered by a foreign court... accompa - nied by an irrevocable and final judgment of execution shikko hanketsu ]”. A judgment of execution is a judgment issued by the Japanese court recognising and directing the enforce - ment of a foreign judgment. It is therefore necessary to first obtain a judgment of execution from a Japanese court before a foreign judgment can be enforced in Japan. A party must file a lawsuit in a Japanese court to obtain a judgment of execution. Article 24 of the Civil Execution Act provides that a “judgment of execution shall be rendered without inquiring into the merits of the decision concerned” (paragraph 2) and a lawsuit seeking a judgment of execution “shall be dismissed when it cannot be demonstrated that the judgment of the foreign court has become final or when the foreign judgment does not meet the conditions enumerated under each item of Article 118 of the Code of Civil Procedure” (paragraph 3).
There is no post-judgment procedure in Japan for determining what assets the defendant holds and where they are located. The judgment creditor must identify the assets held by the judgment debtor when filing for compulsory execution. 2.5 Challenging Enforcement of Domestic Judgments The judgment debtor cannot challenge the judgment itself to resist the enforcement thereof, whether based on the merits or on procedural issues, once the judg - ment becomes final and irrevocable. The exception is a “retrial”, under the Code of Civil Procedure, based on limited prescribed grounds (eg, representation by an unauthorised attorney, false testimony, or forgery of evidence relied upon in the judgment). The execution court may, upon petition, issue an order to stay compulsory execution of the judgment pending such a retrial. A security deposit, the amount of which is determined by the court, may or may not be required. Pursuant to the Civil Execution Act, a judgment debtor may also challenge enforcement of a finalised judg - ment by filing a separate action called “action to oppose execution” if it is based on grounds that occur after the hearing procedures for the judgment. Such grounds include repayment and satisfaction of the debt, set-off, and lapse of a ten-year period from the finalisation of the judgment. The execution court may, upon petition, issue an order to stay compulsory exe - cution of the judgment pending such an action, with or without requiring a security deposit (the amount of which is determined by the court). Finally, in the case of a judgment with a declaration of provisional execution, a judgment debtor may file a petition for a court order staying its enforcement if the defendant appeals the judgment. 2.6 Unenforceable Domestic Judgments Two of the three categories outlined in 2.1 Types of Domestic Judgments are not enforceable: declara - tory judgments and formative judgments. As for judg - ment for performance, which occurs where the parties
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