South Korean with Assets in Japan
A South Korean national (A) who was a lifelong resident of Japan passed away. His two heirs were A’s wife (B), who holds Japanese citizenship, and their child (C), who is a national of South Korea.
A copy of A’s South Korean family register needed to be submitted to the Japanese authorities for them to inherit A’s real estate. However, the family discovered that A’s South Korean family register did not have a record of the death and there was no record of his marriage with B. There was also no record of South Korean citizenship for C.

Our team of experts promptly corrected the family register entries regarding A’s death, his marriage to B, and C’s birth. We identified the heirs, and successfully completed the inheritance registration.

Taiwanese Citizen with Assets in Japan
The deceased was a Taiwanese citizen living in Japan with his Japanese wife and three children. After he passed away, his family became the heirs to his Japanese assets, including real estate, bank accounts and a safe deposit box.

However, due to the language barrier, his family found it difficult trying to gather legal documents from Taiwan. On top of this, only partial copies of family registers could be issued due to Taiwan’s privacy laws, so his family were unable to obtain all the required documents.

Working in collaboration with our partner land surveyor in Taiwan, we were able to obtain the legal documents on behalf of his family using power-of-attorney certified in Japan.

Using our expertise in Taiwan’s family register system, our team reviewed, analyzed, and translated the documents, and coordinated with the Bureau of Legal Affairs and the associated bank. Our team submitted all the official documents we had worked to obtain, along with a written record of the context. With this, we were able to successfully complete the inheritance registration and other procedures for the family.

Singaporean with Assets in Japan
A Singaporean citizen residing in Singapore passed away and left behind real estate in Japan. Before he passed, he had prepared a will in Singapore in accordance with Singaporean law.
Our team explained to the Legal Affairs Bureau that the will was valid for the inheritance registration procedures for the real estate in Japan based on both Japanese and Singaporean law. Then, we transferred the title of the property to the heirs designated in the will.

Canadian citizen with assets in Japan
The deceased was survived by a wife, a Japanese national, as well as three children. Two of the children were living overseas in the US, and one was living with the mother in Japan.

When the mother passed away, the children asked for our assistance in settling the estate. The primary asset of the deceased’s estate was several parcels of real estate, to which the deeds were still in the father’s name. Although there were no disputes between the heirs, the process was complicated due to two of the heirs residing outside Japan.

We settled the estate by selling the real estate and dividing the proceeds among the three heirs. Completing the process for registration and sale of Japanese real estate with non-resident parties required coordination with local authorities and several documents obtained from Canada, but we were able to settle the entire inheritance in six months.

The sale of the real estate was handled by our group company STK Properties.

US citizen with assets in Japan
The estate of the deceased included cash assets as well as several properties in Japan.

The wife of the deceased reached out to us in order to settle the estate to which herself and two children from a previous marriage are heirs. The children from the previous marriage were both living overseas in the US and Australia respectively, whom we contacted to inform of the total assets of the estate and assist through all of the necessary procedures.

Although the process required official documents from Australia and the US, we were able to settle the entire inheritance in under three months.

Sweden national with assets in Japan
The deceased was the husband of the client and of Swedish nationality, and the client and her daughter were both Japanese nationals. They requested that we arrange documents and certificates that were required for inheriting the deceased’s international and domestic savings, as well as inheritance registrations in connection to domestic real property. The deceased had two other children with his ex-wife, one who was of Swedish nationality and was a resident of Sweden, and another who had married a Finnish national, moved to Finland and adopted Finnish nationality.

In Japan, inheritance is governed by the law of the home country of the deceased, so it was necessary to look into the laws of Sweden. However, there was not much literature or reference materials available in Japanese and most of it was out of date. Because of this, we referenced materials such as English versions of unofficial translations published by the Swedish Government, and Swedish originals that we had translated to English. After confirming the scope of inheritance as well as the governing law we translated these documents into Japanese and submitted them to the Legal Affairs Bureau. The Bureau then confirmed that there were no issues with the registration application that our team had formulated based on the laws and relevant information we had researched. This allowed us to arrange the necessary documents for the client’s case.

As well as translating the list of assets and other materials to English, getting in touch with the heirs living abroad, and researching laws and referring them to the Legal Affairs Bureau, we contacted both heirs in Sweden and Finland directly regarding the certificates and affidavits that were necessary to prepare outside of Japan, and smoothly acquired the certificates. Both of them were able to find a public notary nearby who could certify an affidavit in English, and the public notaries used a draft English affidavit that we had created. In the end, because we were able to get certification from public notaries in both countries, we arranged the necessary certificates and completed the real property registration procedures.

After this the client and her daughter used the materials that we had created for other procedures in connection to financial organizations, and completed all the inheritance procedures.

Customers from all over the world with assets in Japan
We have a proven track record of assisting clients from various countries with inheritance procedures, from Switzerland to Vietnam.
Please feel free to contact us for a consultation even if your country is not specifically listed here.