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 negotiation 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.
We assisted in negotiating an agreement between the heirs where the deceased’s wife inherited the properties, and the two children inherited the cash assets. 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.
US citizen with assets in Japan
A US citizen living in Japan came to us seeking to create a will in order to ensure that his wife and children would not have any issues receiving their inheritance.
We explained that the inheritance procedures can vary significantly depending on the type of will that is left. We assisted in the creation of a notarized last will and testament that minimizes the burden on heirs during the inheritance process.
The client was happy to have been given piece of mind.