JAPANESE CIVIL CODE 393 



private rights are concerned. Thus, in a comparatively short space 

 of time, Japanese law passed from the stage of Enmity to that of Equal- 

 ity a revolution, which in other countries has required many cen- 

 turies to accomplish. The difference between the second stage, in 

 which their enjoyment of rights depended upon treaties, and the 

 third stage, in which their rights depend upon law, very clearly 

 appears in the present condition of Russians in Japan. As the 

 commercial treaties between Japan and Russia have come to an end 

 by the outbreak of the war, if Russian subjects had enjoyed their 

 rights only under the treaties, they would not be entitled to claim 

 any protection from Japan, except as a matter of favor. But as their 

 rights are now guaranteed by the provisions of the Code, Russian 

 residents still remaining in Japan enjoy the protection of law, just 

 as peacefully as the citizens of any friendly states. The Code assures 

 them the equal enjoyment of private rights, whether the country 

 to which they belong be in amicable relations with Japan or not. 

 This difference is further illustrated by Imperial Ordinance no. 352 

 of 1899, which declared foreigners who are not citizens of any of the 

 Treaty Powers to have equal freedom of residence and profession 

 with the subjects of the Treaty Powers. 



XL The House and Kinship 



It will be at once remarked by any one reading the new Civil 

 Code that the Japanese family law, unlike that of Europe and 

 America, rests upon the double bases of House and Kinship. The 

 '' house " or " iye," in the sense in which it is employed in the Japanese 

 law, does not mean a household nor a dwelling-place, but a group 

 of persons, bearing the same surname, and subject to the authority 

 of its chief who is called "koshu" or house-head. The other mem- 

 bers who are subject to the authority of the house-head are called 

 "kazoku" or house-members. It is not necessary that a house 

 should consist of a group of persons, for a house may exist even when 

 there is only one person in it, in which case that person is still called 

 "koshu" or house-head. The house-membership consists of those 

 relatives of the house-head or his predecessors, or sometimes also of 

 the relatives of house-members who are not related to the present 

 or preceding house-heads by any tie of kinship, but who entered the 

 house with the house-head's consent; such, for instance, as the 

 relatives of the house-head's adopted son, or daughter-in-law. 

 (Civil Code, arts. 732-745.) The persons who constitute the members 

 of a house are defined by law, and a registry is kept, in each district, 

 of persons who are in each house. The house-membership is con- 

 stituted in accordance with the following rules: 



(1) A child enters the house of its father. 



(2) A child whose father is not known enters the house of its mother. 



