ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways in which support and care is dealt with in the Civil Code. In fact, the Civil Code has no legal provisions that directly govern the issue of support and care for ageing parents. In the post-war revision of the Civil Code, there was a shift from family-property-based inheritance to individual inheritance. According to the Civil Code enacted in the Meiji era, most of the property belonged to i.e. the family, and inheritance was understood to be succession to the status of the administrator of the family property. The system of contributory portion applies to joint heirs only. This is a system designed to ensure fairness among joint heirs in the procedure of dividing the inherited property.
