JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Hiroki Wakabayashi, Kenichi Sadaka and Kei Akagawa, Anderson Mori & Tomotsune
plaintiff may or may not send an enquiry letter to a potential defendant prior to the initiation of a lawsuit. If the potential defendant receives the enquiry letter and if such letter is in a form pre- scribed in the CCP, such potential defendant is obliged to respond to that enquiry. However, no specific sanction of the potential defendant is provided for in the statute. 3.2 Statutes of Limitations Under the current rule of the Civil Code (1886 Law No 89), the recent amendments to which came into force on 1 April 2020, in principle, the statute of limitations period (or prescriptive peri- od) is five years from the time a potential plaintiff became aware that a certain right was exercis- able, or ten years from the time when the right became exercisable, whichever comes earlier. There are exceptions depending on the nature of the claims. For example, as regards damages compensation claims arising from tortious acts, the period is three years (five years in the case of a claim for bodily injury) from the time a potential plaintiff became aware that the tort claim was exercisable, or 20 years from the time the tor- tious act took place, whichever comes earlier. 3.3 Jurisdictional Requirements for a Defendant The CCP lists certain requirements for determin- ing whether Japanese courts have jurisdiction over a particular case, such as: • that the defendant is located in Japan; • that, in the case of a contract dispute, the obligation is supposed to be performed in Japan; and • that, in the case of a tort, the tort took place in Japan. This rule is generally applicable to first instance cases to be filed with district courts and summa-
ry courts. However, cases to be filed with family courts are subject to a modified rule. 3.4 Initial Complaint A plaintiff has to submit a complaint to initiate a lawsuit. It is possible for the plaintiff to amend the complaint later as long as it does not funda- mentally change the claim, and so doing will not substantially delay the litigation proceedings. However, the plaintiff cannot add defendants later in the same proceeding. So, if the plain- tiff wants to extend his/her/its claims to other parties who are not named defendants in the complaint, the plaintiff has to file another law- suit against those parties, and ask the court to consolidate those proceedings at its discretion. 3.5 Rules of Service Once a plaintiff has filed a complaint with a court, the court clerk is responsible for serv- ing the summons and the complaint upon the defendant. In most cases, the court clerk will engage the Japanese postal service to serve the defendant. It is possible for a plaintiff to sue a defendant located outside of Japan, in which case the service will be made through diplomat- ic channels, including those provided for in the If the defendant fails to appear at the court hear- ing and submit its answer to the court despite having been duly served, the court may deem that the defendant has admitted to all the alle - gations in the complaint, and therefore enter a default judgment in the plaintiff’s favour, unless the court thinks it lacks jurisdiction over the case. 3.7 Representative or Collective Actions Japan has its own class action system, which has an opt-in format. However, the claims that Hague Service Convention. 3.6 Failure to Respond
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