Civil Law And Loyalty-The Family System In Meiji Civil Law

In the debate on Japanese civil laws, Hotsumi yatsuka published the famous article of Civil law, Filial piety and Death. In this article, Hotsumi yatsuka thought that in Japan, the household system and the concept of loyalty and filial piety are exterior and interior to each other. The household system is the essence of the concept of loyalty and filial piety. This viewpoint was widely accepted at that time. However, through the research on the household system and the concept of loyalty and filial piety in the period of indigenous law in Japan, it is found that the concept of loyalty and filial piety was not created by native Japanese. Instead, it was created based on the Chinese Confucian culture and further transformation of Japanese people. Originally, it was used as a means of continuing family honor by Samurais. Later, as the basis for regime legitimacy, it was promoted nationwide Tokugawa Shogunate. In the indigenous law before Tokugawa Shogunate, little was mentioned about loyalty and filial piety. In practice, various families instructed their descendants based on family instructions, so as to continue family honor by adhering to loyalty and filial piety. But after Tokugawa Shogunate, due to the massive and nationwide promotion, loyalty and filial piety was not only valued by law, but also accepted by every ordinary citizen through means of publicity and rewards.When Christianity was introduced from the west to Japan, it posed huge ideological impacts on the family system in Japan. Because the family system only included this-worldly members, but also the more important worship to their ancestors. Because of ancestors’ blessings and hard work, their descendants and posterity could enjoy their present life. However, the monotheism in Christianity was in conflict with polytheism in the Japanese family system. Believing God indicated giving up believing in and respecting for the deceased ancestors. After the beginning of Meiji restoration, influenced by the industrialization of capitalism, the government conducted land tax reform, and established the household registration system. Such reforms in public laws and the society destroyed the land system, which the family system depended on for existence. Land was no longer owned by families. Individuals could obtain lands in his own name. It laid the economic foundation for the separation from the family system. The household registration system indicated that individuals started to become the subjects of legal rights and duties. People also began to focus on acknowledgment of identities. Under such social context, constitutors of Old Civil Code of Japan decided to adopt individualism. The Meiji Civil Code of Japan, formulated based on the French Civil law, went against Japanese tradition in terms of personal and property relationships. Therefore, when Hotsumi yatsuka proposed the slogan of Civil law, Filial piety and Death, it was accepted by most of the Japanese people. Old Civil Code of Japan was also discarded.However, the final version of Meiji Civil Code of Japan implemented did not fully adopt the ideas in the debate on civil war. In many aspects, the family system of Meiji Civil Code of Japan not only the reveals the absorption and reference to the modern family law in the west, but also the reservation about traditional family system. Lastly, Meiji Civil Code of Japan combined modern law from the west with its own indigenous law. It created the two-fold family structure that included the coexistence of civil law, loyalty and filial piety, as well as conceptual and substantial laws of family system.The paper believes that the significance of national civil law lies in the further indication and guidance for the development of private law area, and eradication of remnants of feudalism based on the coercive effects of law. From this aspect, Meiji Civil Code of Japan gave up coercively transforming the traditional “loyal and filial piety” society by formulating relevant laws. Instead, it formally established the samurai family system that adheres to the rule of loyal and filial piety. In terms of family ethics, democracy and equality became the new mainstream. The concept of loyalty and filial piety, which used to exist upon intra-family hierarchy, started to decline.