Marriage in Japan, like many other parts of the world, acts not only as a social union but as an economic one as well. In generally, husband and wife are expected to share property as one joint economic unit. However, even after marriage there are certain objects that couples like to think of as solely their own and not being shared and to some extent the law recognizes this.
However, the idea of separate property is not as intuitive as it might seem at first. Property that is held under only one spouse’s name is not necessarily the separate property of that spouse. A common example of this would be a spouse’s bank account after marriage. The salary being deposited in that account is joint property of a married couple regardless of whether only one spouse’s name is listed on the account.
In fact, most property acquired by a married couple in Japan is treated as joint property, jointly owned by both the husband and wife. This includes not only salary and money but also cars, condos, houses and other real and physical property as well. Simply having one spouse’s name listed on the ownership document does not mean the property is considered seperate under the law.
However, property that was acquired before the marriage or property that was specifically obtained in the name of only one spouse during the marriage without using joint money is treated as separate property. Some examples might include a family heirloom passed down to one spouse after marriage or maybe the private summer home owned by one of the spouses before the marriage. In those cases, the property remains the separate property of either the husband or the wife.
These distinctions normally do not play an important part in daily married life but can become critical during a divorce. When dividing property between the spouses as part of a divorce, the court will exclude all of the separate property before dividing the joint property between the husband and wife. Therefore, clearly identifying which property is separate can have a large impact on the eventual property distribution between the spouses.