JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Jumpei Osada, Masaaki Sasaki, Takuto Kobayashi and Hiroshi Ideyama, TMI Associates
vention and the Fund Convention, MARPOL 73/78 with its Annexes, the International Con - vention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), the Bunker Pollution Convention 2001 and other relevant rules and regulations, as well as con - ventions covering wreck-removal, such as the Nairobi Convention. These conventions are incorporated into or codified by Japanese local laws and regulations. In 2020, the Nairobi Convention and the Bunker Pollution Convention 2001 were ratified, result - ing in amendments to the Act on Liability for Oil Pollution Damage and other related domestic laws, which came into force on 1 October 2020. The amendments to the Act on Liability for Oil Pollution Damage mainly purport to bring this legislation into line with the conventions. The gist of the amendments lies in: • expanding the scope of the vessels which are required to obtain compulsory insurance; • admitting a direct claim against an insurer for compensation for loss and damage arising from bunker oil or wrecks; • limiting the defence arguments which may be made by the insurer, other than the defences which that owner may have been entitled to invoke against the claimant; and • recognition and enforcement of judgments made by the state parties under the Bunker Pollution Convention 2001. 2.2 International Conventions: Collision and Salvage Japan has ratified the 1910 Collision Convention and the Convention on the International Regula - tion 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 Conven - tion and the applicable domestic 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 enacted on 1 April 2019. Japan has also ratified the 1910 Salvage Con - vention, but not the 1989 Salvage Convention. The Lloyd’s Standard Form of Salvage Agree - ment (LOF) and the Japan Shipping Exchange (JSE) Form of Salvage Agreement are the two forms most widely accepted by salvage opera - tions in Japan. In the absence of any such spe - cific agreement between the parties, the Com - mercial 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 environmental pollution are taken into account in determining the amount of salvage reward (as special compensation); and • the limitation period for making a claim for the salvage reward is two years from the time of salvage. 2.3 1976 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. 2.4 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-own -
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