Shipping 2026

JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Jumpei Osada, Masaaki Sasaki, Takuto Kobayashi and Hiroshi Ideyama, TMI Associates

3.4 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties Japan ratified the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties in 1981, and the Convention entered into force for Japan in the same year. To date, there appear to be no maritime cases in which the Convention has been raised as a principal legal issue before Japanese courts; however, it is expected that the Convention will be taken into account in future judicial decisions. 3.5 Procedure and Requirements for Establishing a Limitation Fund Under the Limitation of Liability Act, an applicant for limitation of liability must be classified as a “ship- owner, etc” or a “servant, etc”. “Ship-owner, etc” is widely construed as including ship-owners, voyage charterers, time charterers and slot charterers. “Serv - ant, etc” is defined as “the servant of a ship-owner or salvor, or any other such person whose actions the ship-owner or salvor is responsible for”. The applicant must file an application to the local District Court to initiate limitation proceedings and, once the court has found its application appropriate, the court will order the establishment of a limitation fund by cash equiva - lent to the liability limit or by guarantee made by a bank, insurance company or protection and indemnity insurance (P&I) club. Article 7 of the Limitation of Liability Act provides the information on how to calculate the limitation figure. A complex calculation is required to find the amount of the limitation funds, but the basic concept for the cal - culation is: (i) the limitation figure is calculated based on the gross tonnage of the vessel; and (ii) two types of limitation figures are set out, one for claims aris - ing out of only property damage and the other for all other claims (including claims arising out of death and personal injury). No further funds (eg, a deposit) are required to be provided. 3.6 Seafarers’ Safety and Owners’ Liability Japan has ratified the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 and it has been implemented into the Mariners Act (Act No 100 of 1947) since 2013. The purpose of the Mariners Act, in which the Convention has been directly or indirectly reflected, is to not only protect seafarers’ rights with regard to working conditions but also to ensure safety of navigation of vessels. The main parts of the Act provide:

• recognition and enforcement of judgments made by the state parties under the Bunker Pollution Convention 2001. 3.2 International Conventions: Collision and Salvage Japan has ratified the 1910 Collision Convention and the Convention on the International Regulation for Preventing Collisions at Sea 1972, which have each been promulgated and enforced as domestic laws. Whilst there had been a major difference between the 1910 Collision Convention and the applicable domes - tic law (ie, the Commercial Code) with respect to the relevant limitations period, this anomaly has now been resolved by the reform of the Commercial Code enact - ed on 1 April 2019. Japan has also ratified the 1910 Salvage Convention, but not the 1989 Salvage Convention. The Lloyd’s Standard Form of Salvage Agreement (LOF) and the Japan Shipping Exchange (JSE) Form of Salvage Agreement are the two forms most widely accepted by salvage operations in Japan. In the absence of any such specific agreement between the parties, the Commercial Code 2019 applies and provides that: • the basic principle is “no cure, no pay”; • the labour and costs incurred as a result of any necessary measures to prevent or reduce environ - mental pollution are taken into account in deter - mining the amount of salvage reward (as special compensation); and • the limitation period for making a claim for the sal - vage reward is two years from the time of salvage. 3.3 Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims Japan has ratified the LLMC Convention 1976 and the LLMC Protocol 1996, both of which have been implemented into the Limitation of Liability Act. The increase in the limits of liability brought about by the amendment of the Protocol of 1996 have been applied under the Act, which was amended in line with the amendment of the Protocol of 1996 and came into effect on 8 June 2015.

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