JAPANESE CIVIL CODE 413 



were also very often forced to abdicate by the resolution of family 

 councils on account of their moral depravity, which made them 

 unfit for the duties of house-headship. Even in the beginning 

 of the present reign, this kind of abdication continued; and 

 article 14 of the Criminal Code of 1873 provided that kwazoku 

 and shizoku, or nobles and samurais who were guilty of crimes 

 involving grave moral depravity, should be sentenced to the 

 loss of house-headship, together with their privileges. 

 (4) ^Physiological abdication. 



The decay of physical or mental power either on account of 

 old age or ill health is the most common cause of abdication. 

 Manu says: "When a householder sees his skin wrinkled, and his 

 hair white, and the sons of his sons, then he may resort to the 

 forest. " (Manu, vi, 2.) As house-headship was an institution 

 of public law as well as of private law, it involved not only power 

 over the house-members, but also many duties toward the state, 

 besides duties and responsibilities toward the house-members 

 which were incumbent upon that position. So house-heads were 

 often obliged to retire from the active duties of family life when 

 their age or state of health made them unfit for that position. 

 This was especially the case with the samurai class during the 

 feudal period, when physical power was especially necessary for 

 the discharge of military duties. It is for this reason that abdica- 

 tion came to be regarded as an important and necessary institu- 

 tion, and laws relating to it made great progress under the military 

 regime of feudalism. 



The rule with regard to the age at which a house-head was 

 allowed to abdicate was seventy before the establishment of 

 the feudal system, which was the age of retirement according 

 to the Chinese Ceremonial Code (j^gS). But this age was 

 lowered under feudalism and fifty was fixed as the lowest limit 

 of the age at which a house-head was allowed to abdicate 

 without adducing any other reason. But since the abolition 

 of feudalism and the establishment of the conscription system, 

 which imposes military duty irrespective of a man's position in 

 the house, there is no need to keep this low limit of age. The 

 new Code raised it again and fixed it at sixty; so that there have 

 been three changes as to the age of retirement, the first being 

 seventy, the second fifty, and the third sixty. 



According to the new Code, a house-head may abdicate when 

 he has attained the age of sixty, but in case of a female house- 

 head, she may abdicate irrespective of her age. (Civil Code, 

 arts. 752, 755.) In all other cases the permission of a court 

 of law is necessary. Such permission is given if a house-head is 

 unable to continue the management of the house owing to one 



