You certainly can do quite a few things. You probably know by now that there is no federal estate tax at all in the United States, if deaths occur in 2010. Next year it may come back like a tidal wave —or not — depending on what Congress does. What should you do to cope ...
Osaka leads Japan in another embarrassing statistic. It is checking its records, which it found list 5,125 residents which are indicated to be age 120 or older. One man would be 152 if still alive. See the Bloomberg article. Cities and towns throughout Japan are all reviewing their files after the revelation of a ...
I suppose that the answer largely depends on your reaction to the government’s making decisions for you. Perhaps it is a societal matter. In Japan, people often seem to expect guidance from authority figures. They may also assume that “forced inheritance” rules, which allow close family members to insist on fixed shares, mean that there ...
Willie Pesek’s latest column at Bloomberg.com may offer a great insight into why the size of China’s economy has now surpassed Japan’s. It rings true to many expats in Japan. Willie continually does a great job in noting why news matters. That news does not mean China is “better” in that it provides its ...
For decades, Japan companies and the public have complained about the lack of legal services, due to there being only about 15,000 lawyers in Japan, which, as I am fond of saying, was less than the number of golf courses in the United States. Naturally, this systematic shortage of legal services resulted in substitutes ...
Japan will sign the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction in 2011, thus finally joining the many developed countries that prevent a parent in a failed international marriage from taking children across borders in violation of an existing child custody order. This is in direct response to “gaiatsu” or foreign pressure ...
Japan has the seventh highest incidence of reported parental abductions from the United States (currently 23 cases involving 34 children.) Typically, such cases involve a wife who wrongfully takes children to Japan in violation of a custody ruling. Since Japan is not a signatory to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International ...
The legal guardianship system in Japan for adults troubled with extreme old age, dementia or handicaps in now in its tenth year, but there still seems to be an imperfect understanding of the role that guardians should play; that is, to safeguard the interests and assets of the persons receiving care. In many cases, ...
Children are special. They are one of life's treasures. When we hear of disasters such as the 2004 tsunami (my own son was actually swimming in the Indian Ocean at the time) or the recent quake in Haiti, ...
A long-time, valued friend passed away this year and it has caused me to reframe my practice here in Japan. Tom Reilly of Kobe and I worked together for years in the Kansai Chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce In Japan. Tom knew everybody and was particularly close to many regional government figures like ...