In Chapter 12, author and lawyer Shin Ushijima takes on the issue of inheritance in the struggle over governance and control of family-owned corporations.
Author and lawyer Shin Ushijima with his latest book, "Japan for Sale." (©Japan Forward)
Corporate Japan is changing, and so are the complex relationships between the business world and the individual human beings who own, manage, and make it work. Author and lawyer Shin Ushijima uses his rare talent to weave a fictional story about love, loyalty, betrayal, war and peace, and the collapse and rebirth of the protagonists, as well as their country. Join us below for the next chapter in this gripping saga.
Find earlier chapters through the Table of Contents
Chapter 12: Japan for Sale!
The Destiny of the Baby Boomer Generation
Ohki, ever the lawyer, paused momentarily at Reiko Nishino's comment. "Oh, so that's how it was. Then everything's resolved. That's good."
"What is it? Don't just smile to yourself, tell me what you mean."
"Well, that makes sense. You probably asked your company's legal counsel to write it. So, it was Mineo's wish that he leave all his assets to you, that is to say, his wife, not to his children. That solves things."
"What is it? Don't just sit there talking to yourself. Tell me."
"Haven't you asked your legal counsel? That's odd. For someone to leave all his assets to his wife isn't valid in itself. But it's invalid only to the degree it infringes on an heir's statutory reserve share of the inheritance."
"Statutory reserve share?"
"Yes. You see, in Japan, even if there is a will, a certain percentage of the assets is left to all the legal heirs. In other words, it's not possible to take it away even if a will states otherwise. That's what the Civil Code says.
"However, the party whose rights have been infringed has to be the one to make the claim. Your legal counsel explained it properly when Mineo made his will, didn't he?"
"I don't recall. Mineo was very emotional at that time, so the situation was quite difficult. That was understandable. And he insisted that he give me all of his assets, every last yen of it. 'The child listed as my eldest daughter in our family register isn't actually my daughter, so there's no way someone like that should be able to claim a mandatory share of the inheritance,' he said to me. Mineo wanted it clearly spelled out that since Eijiro was his actual son, he should inherit his property.'
Whose Daughter?
"Our legal advisor was like, 'Well, let's just write it that way for now.' I mean, put yourself in Mineo's shoes. He never told his eldest daughter that she wasn't his biological child. But when he thought about what would happen when he died, it seems like the fact that she wasn't his child really bothered him."
"So, he only found out when he was trying to conceive a child with you, right? Even so, that must have been a shock."
"Actually, he quite doted on Midori. Even from my perspective, I felt quite sorry for them both. That's because Mineo believed from the bottom of his heart that she was his child."
Reiko explained this in a hushed tone as she thought back about the past events.
"It seems like you've been through a lot."
"Yes, as might have been expected, his former wife passed away without ever telling Mineo that Midori was not his child."
"But who is Midori's real father?"
"Who knows!"
Reiko answered curtly. Ohki could well understand Reiko's feelings about that.
"That makes sense. So, your eldest daughter was left behind for Mineo to take care of. Human society is truly a tangled and unfathomable web."
"Apparently. Midori-chan stopped going to school because her mother suddenly died in a car accident."
"That's true."
"But Mineo behaved marvelously at that time."
"Then, a few years later, Mineo learned the definitive truth?"
"That's right. But even after Mineo found out that Midori wasn't his child, he continued to dote on her very much. Well, there was her refusing to go to school. Mineo said that he had gone through the same sort of thing. And it seemed like he understood Midori's feelings very well."
Statutory Rights
"All kinds of things happen in our lives."
"A lawyer would say something like that. But I experienced it personally."
"Anyhow, the family register was left unchanged?"
"Isn't that why I'm here!"
She was right. She was exactly right.
"As I explained earlier, the only remaining issue is the eldest daughter's legal share of the inheritance. Since you and the two children are the only heirs, your legal share is one-half. That's because Eijiro probably won't file a claim against you for a reduction in your legal share of the inheritance."
"What do you mean, reduction?"
"Diminishment of your portion of the inheritance. He has the right to file such a request. You probably aren't familiar with the term I used because it's legal jargon."
"He's in the dark."
"Whoa, really?"
"Eijiro doesn't know anything about it. He's already married and has kids."
"How many?"
"Two of them. Both children are completely under his wife's thumb. That's why sometimes I think about how I should live my life today, as I could be gone tomorrow. Does that sound weird to you?"
"No, it's not the least bit strange. We humans are born alone and die alone. Shakespeare said that."
"Doesn't knowing that make you feel lonely?"
"Why should it? Isn't that the simple fact of the matter? Like the famous writer Kafu Nagai, I believe living and dying alone might even be considered the ideal. Whether or not that is how things will work out is a different matter."
"Oh, so you're the kind of person who views the world like that? What a sad life that must make for."
"Is there such a thing as a life without sadness in this world?"
Clear Intentions
As if mulling over Ohki's words, Reiko shifted her gaze to the conference room wall and kept it there for a while.
After some time had passed, Ohki spoke again.
"So, as you believe that you must do something for the sake of the time that you die, what is the immediate issue you must face?"
"About that. I have an odd story to tell. After Mineo died, Midori suddenly seemed like such a distant figure to me. It seemed that the three siblings were raised to be so close for so many decades, all due to Mineo's wishes. But then Mineo died. And in the will that he wrote, to prepare me in case he should die, he stated that all of his assets would go to me. He didn't want to leave anything directly to Midori, of course, but not even to Eijiro."
"That was made very clear in his will. Legally, that's not how it works in Japan, but Mineo-san certainly made his intentions crystal clear."
"That will was made after Mineo, and I talked things over."
"Hmm. So you thought that way too."
A Sip of Tea
Pausing briefly, Ohki reached for the cup of black tea on the table. It had already gone cold.
Why is it, he thought to himself, that tea tastes even better after it cools down? It's strange, because coffee isn't like that. So why tea?
Silently, he took a sip, and then another sip, before putting the cup back on the saucer.
"There was a revision to the Civil Code in 2019. Now, even if a claim for the reduction of a statutory share of the inheritance is filed, the shares of Hiroshima Kosan cannot be touched. Hiroshima Kosan is probably worth around ¥10 billion. In addition, Mineo-san no doubt had personal assets."
"Yes, there are some assets in his own name. I know everything about all of them."
"I believe that Mineo-san arranged it so that the company would pay less than a quarter of the value of Hiroshima Kosan's shares in cash. That's because he left a will saying that everything should go to you."
"Our tax accountant says the company is worth about ¥10 billion.
"Is that the market value?"
"Yes, he said that if everything were converted into cash, it would amount to ¥10 billion."
"In that case, we need a little less than ¥2.5 billion in cash. Can you raise that much? I'm referring to assets that, if disposed of, wouldn't have much impact on company operations."
"No problem. The company has bank deposits, and it also owns a lot of publicly traded stocks. I own some too."
Follow the story as it continues.
(To read the book in Japanese, please visit the publisher's website.)
READ Other Books in English by Shin Ushijima:
Author: Shin Ushijima
Ushijima & Partners, Attorneys at Law
Translation by: John C Carroll
(Edited by Susan Komori, Japan Forward)