JAPANESE CIVIL CODE 371 



work of codification, a Bureau for the Investigation of Institutions 

 was established in the third year of Meiji (1870), and one of the 

 fruits of the labor of that bureau was the translation of the French 

 Codes. This translation afforded the knowledge-thirsty Japanese ideas 

 of Western laws for the first time, and had an immense influence 

 upon subsequent legislation and judicial decisions in the courts of law. 

 In 1875 a Committee for the Compilation of the Civil Code was 

 appointed for the first time. In 1878 a draft was submitted by this 

 committee to the Government. This draft was a close imitation of 

 the French Civil Code, both in its arrangements and -in its content 

 and was not adopted by the Government. In 1880 Professor Bois- 

 sonade, an eminent French jurist, who was then a legal adviser to 

 the Japanese Government, was asked to prepare a new draft, and in 

 the next year, a Bureau for the Codification of the Civil Law was 

 established, to which Professor Boissonade's draft was submitted for 

 deliberation. The bureau was abolished in 1886, and a Committee 

 for the Investigation of Law was appointed, composed of the members 

 of the Genroin or the Senate and of the Bench, with Count Yamada, 

 the Minister of Justice, at its head. This committee made its report in 

 1888, and the draft was submitted to the deliberation of the Senate, 

 and was adopted by that Council. On the 27th of March, 1890, under 

 Law no. 28, those parts of the Code which were drafted by Professor 

 Boissonade, that is, book n, relating to "Property in General," 

 book in, relating to the "Means of Acquiring Property," book iv, 

 "Security of Rights in personam," and book v, relating to "Evi- 

 dence," were published. Those parts which were prepared by 

 Japanese jurists, namely, book i, relating to "Persons," and part 

 of book in, relating to "Succession," were published on the 16th 

 of October of the same year, and the whole code was to go into 

 operation from the 1st of January, 1893. 



Thus after the arduous toil of fifteen years, Japan possessed a code 

 of private law for the first time in her history. It was quite natural 

 that the Code should become a topic of earnest consideration for all 

 educated classes of the people. Especially among lawyers and poli- 

 ticians, a violent controversy arose regarding the merits of the ne\v 

 code. Those jurists who had studied English law in the Tokio 

 University or in England or America first raised their voices against 

 the Code and demanded the postponement of the date of its going 

 into operation, with a view to its complete revision. The French 

 section of Japanese lawyers, on the other hand, supported the Code 

 and insisted upon the necessity of its going into operation at the date 

 originally appointed. The German section of jurists, whose number 

 was at that time comparatively small, was divided into two parties, 

 some siding with the one, and others joining the other. Japanese 

 lawyers were thus divided into two hostile camps, and the lively 



