JAPAN Trends and Developments Contributed by: Yuko Kanamaru, Gaien Partners
• Japanese public order and morality – the for - eign judgment must not be against public policy in Japan. In general, both the contents and the underlying facts upon which the judgment is based are to be examined to determine whether they are contrary to public policy in Japan. • Reciprocity – the “mutual guarantee” requirement under Article 118 (iv) requires that, in the foreign country where the foreign judgment was rendered, the same type of judgment rendered by a Japa - nese court would be effective under conditions which are not substantially different from those in Japan (Supreme Court of 1983). Once the court admits and issues the execution judg - ment, then the creditor can file a petition for compul - sory execution based on such execution judgment, in accordance with the provisions of the CEA, the ver - sion of which will totally depend on the timing of such execution. Impact on the practice – matters to be kept in mind While legal counsels are used to the current steps for compulsory execution, which have been in use for a long time, the new procedures as a result of the amendments are attractive to them because they will reduce the time required for the proceedings and realisation of the judgment. The current process takes quite some time and requires back-and-forth communications with the court. For example, once counsels have obtained a winning judgment, which becomes final and binding after the expiration of the appeal period, they must first apply for and obtain
an authenticated copy of that judgment, attached to a certificate of execution, and a certificate of service of judgment to the losing party. Together with those documents and some other certified copies of official registrations (especially those relating to the subject of the compulsory execution, such as real estate or the third-party debtor whose debt will be the subject of the execution), the counsels then file a petition for compulsory execution onto some specific assets of the losing party. If the competent court is in a dif - ferent area, it may take quite some time to obtain all the required documents. By substituting the standard documentation with a digital file, however, counsels do not have to worry as much about the timeline. As can be seen above, the steps for the execution of a foreign judgment are the same as those for normal Japanese litigation and its compulsory execution. In this regard, the 2023 CEA Amendments, together with the amendments to date of the CCP, will have a great impact on the cases involving non-Japanese compa - nies, such as those that have a subsidiary in Japan and do business there, those who do business with a Japanese company and would like to execute their rights, or those who obtained a judgment from the court of their own domicile and would like to have their rights admitted in Japan. It would be advisable to check the timing of the execu - tion, together with the enactment situation of the 2023 CEA Amendments, in order to take advantage of the mandated procedures and find the most efficient way to realise a client’s rights.
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