The Japanese cabinet approved a draft revision to the Civil Code on Friday to scrap lifetime adult guardianships and make the system more flexible for people with cognitive impairments. The changes allow termination when support is no longer needed.
The Japanese cabinet approved a draft revision to the Civil Code on Friday to eliminate the lifetime appointment principle in the adult guardianship system. The move aims to better reflect the needs and conditions of people with cognitive impairments.
Under the current system, guardianships cannot be terminated during a ward's lifetime, leading to situations where guardians retain control over daily spending even for limited initial purposes like inheritance procedures. The revision streamlines the three support categories—guardianship, curatorship, and assistance—into a single assistance category, with family courts appointing guardians and defining their scope of actions.
Guardians must submit annual status reports, and courts will end arrangements when wards no longer need support. Family members can also request termination. As of December 2025, about 259,000 people were using the system.
The revision also enables electronic wills via smartphones and personal computers, moving away from reliance on handwritten wills.
