In recent years, the number of diminished-capacity persons, who have few family care givers, because of aging, Alzheimer’s disease, mental illness has been increasing in the wake of decreasing the number of children because of developing globalization and disseminating opportunities regarding female workforce.
Under the great aged-society, two pillars support the above persons: Long-Term Care Insurance System and Adult Guardianship System which are simultaneously went into effect in 2000.
Among other things, Adult Guardianship System plays the two crucial roles for the vulnerable persons. One is to protect and manage the assets the individual has. The other is to support decision making (autonomy) and respect fundamental human rights to which he/she is entitled by the Constitution.
Generally, the individual who needs above assistance is called as “respondent”, “a person subject to guardianship” or “protected person”. The person who supports him/her is called as “guardian”.
In Japan, there are primarily two types of guardianship system, hence one is the statutory adult guardianship system where the person with diminished capacity can utilize, and the other is the voluntary adult guardianship system where the person with sound capacity prepares for the future. Both are finally supervised by the family courts, however each has pros and cons.
The statutory adult guardianship is divided into further three types depending on the respondent’s legal capacity, which is determined in accordance with mainly medical certificate: guardianship, curatorship and assistance. Such fiduciaries are appointed by courts.
The voluntary adult guardianship may be an ideal strategy because the individual can ask his/her trusted person to perform only particular matters while he/she has sufficient legal capacity, nonetheless, the court shall appoint another supervisor who oversees the voluntary guardian (trusted person) after the individual is determined as an protected person.
According to Act on General Rules for Application of Laws of Japan, as a foreign national who has domicile or residence in Japan is able to utilize above guardianship system, we will support you.