The Civil Code of Japan compared with
the French Civil Code.
By Kazuo Hatoyama, LL.D.
William L. Storrs, Lecturer in the Yale Law School, 1901–2
I.
I propose in these lectures to treat of the reasons that led to the adoption of the Japanese Civil Code; to give a brief sketch of the history of its compilation, and then to compare it with the French Civil Code making at the same time occasional references to the German Civil Code. In this study of comparative legislation I shall not attempt to examine the fourth and fifth Books on Family Relations and Succession as they contain many features peculiar to Japan which can not be explained without fully going into the historical development of Japanese institutions.
The first three Books of the Code, namely: Book I, General Provisions; Book II, Rights in Rem; and Book III, Rights in Personam, were promulgated on the 24th of April, 1896, and the remaining two Books were promulgated two years later. The whole Code thus enacted went into operation on the 16th of July, 1898.
I will mention the two principal causes that led to the adoption of the Civil Code.
The first and most important arose from the social and political reforms effected subsequent to the restoration of the Emperor to actual power in 1868. The feudal system, which was, until then, in full play, created a sort of imperium in imperio within the localities occupied by the Dymios, of whom there were about three hundred, large and small. Each Dymio was almost a sovereign in his own province. He had his own retainers who owed direct and personal fealty to him, but whose allegiance to the Shogun was indirect. He exercised both civil and criminal jurisdiction within his district. He even issued paper currency, the circulation of which was, of course, limited to his jurisdiction. The apparent result of this kind of political system was the want of unity considered from a national standpoint. The system was, however, swept away by the revolu-
