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2026-09-08
Who the heirs are and the statutory shares ― spouse, children, parents, siblings: who inherits how much
When there is no will, who becomes an heir and in what proportions is the estate divided? The spouse is always an heir; the order of children, parents and siblings; representation (代襲相続); adopted children and children of a former spouse; a common-law spouse; half-blood siblings. This article sets out the "range of heirs", the first thing to settle in any inheritance consultation, with a worked example.
About this translation ― This page is an English translation of an article originally written in Japanese by KuraLab's operator, a licensed real-estate transaction specialist (宅地建物取引士) and administrative scrivener (行政書士) in Japan. The Japanese original is the authoritative text; where the two differ, the Japanese version prevails. The article explains Japanese law and procedure in general terms as of the date shown. It is not legal, tax or immigration advice for your situation ― please confirm with a licensed professional in Japan. Japanese terms are kept in parentheses so you can search for them. Read the Japanese original
The week after the forty-ninth-day memorial, a mother and her three children came for advice on dividing the estate. The father's estate was 12,000,000 yen, and there was no will. The mother said, "I think the four of us, me and the three children, should split it equally." Not equally. The mother takes one half, 6,000,000 yen, and the three children split the remaining 6,000,000 yen three ways, 2,000,000 yen each. And, looking at the family register (戸籍), I said one more thing: "There are four children." A child born of the father's first marriage was on the register. This article is about that fourth child.
Inheritance procedures always begin with settling "who the heirs are." The estate division agreement (遺産分割協議書), the legal heir information chart (法定相続情報一覧図) and the inheritance registration are all void if even one heir is missing. Who becomes an heir is fixed by the Civil Code and does not change with the family's feelings or who lived with whom.
First, the spouse is always an heir. This is limited to a spouse whose marriage has been registered; a common-law spouse or a divorced former spouse is not an heir. The heirs other than the spouse are ranked: first rank children, second rank lineal ascendants (parents, grandparents), third rank siblings. If even one person of an earlier rank exists, people of a later rank do not become heirs. If there are children, the parents are not heirs, and siblings become heirs only when there are neither children nor parents.
"Children" includes adopted children, children of a former spouse and acknowledged children born outside marriage, all with the same share (the 2013 amendment of the Civil Code made the share of a child born outside marriage equal to that of a child born in marriage). An ordinary adoptee keeps the parent-child relationship with the birth parents too, and so is an heir of both the birth parents and the adoptive parents. A special adoptee's relationship with the birth parents is severed. A divorced former spouse is not an heir, but the children of that marriage are. This is the point at which people in consultations are often surprised: "Does the first wife's child have rights too?"
If a child died before the parent, that child's children (grandchildren of the deceased) become heirs in their place. This is representation (代襲相続), and if a grandchild has also died it continues to great-grandchildren. There is representation where siblings are heirs too, but it stops at nephews and nieces and goes no further.
In short: the spouse is always an heir; then, in order, first the children (with grandchildren representing a child who died first), second the parents and grandparents only when there are no children, and third the siblings only when there is neither a first nor a second rank.
The statutory share is determined by the combination of heirs. Spouse and children: spouse one half, all the children together one half. Spouse and lineal ascendants: spouse two thirds, lineal ascendants one third. Spouse and siblings: spouse three quarters, siblings one quarter. If there is no spouse, those of the same rank divide everything equally. Three children get one third each. Among siblings, a "half-blood" sibling who shares only one parent receives one half of the share of a sibling who shares both.
As a table: spouse and children, spouse 1/2, children together 1/2 divided equally by number. Spouse and lineal ascendants (parents and so on), spouse 2/3, lineal ascendants together 1/3. Spouse and siblings, spouse 3/4, siblings together 1/4 (half-blood at half the share of full-blood). Spouse only, everything. Children only, lineal ascendants only, or siblings only: equal shares within the same rank. As an example with a spouse and three children (one of them from a previous spouse), an estate of 12,000,000 yen and no will, the statutory shares are spouse 6,000,000 yen, child 2,000,000 yen, child 2,000,000 yen, child of the former spouse 2,000,000 yen. The child of the former spouse has the same share as the other children even without ever having lived together; to divide differently by agreement, the consent of everyone, including that child, is required.
This statutory share is the "starting point for discussion" when there is no will, not a proportion you are obliged to follow. If all the heirs agree, a different division (the house to the eldest son, the savings to the second son, and so on) is possible. The written form of that is the estate division agreement. Conversely, if there is a will, the will takes priority, but as described in another article on this site on the legally reserved portion (遺留分), one half of the statutory share (one third where only lineal ascendants are heirs) is guaranteed as a reserved portion.
There are cases where a person cannot be an heir. "Disqualification" (相続欠格), for intentionally causing the death of the deceased, or forging or destroying the will. "Disinheritance" (廃除), where the family court finds abuse of the deceased or serious misconduct. And renunciation of inheritance. A person who has renounced is treated as never having been an heir, and no representation arises for that person's children.
In order. The father's family registers from birth to death came to six documents. The third recorded that the father married at 28, divorced at 32, and that one child was born in between. On the divorce, that child entered the mother's register, and there had been no contact with the father since. The mother and three children knew that the father had been married before, but not that there was a child. The heirs: the mother and four children. The statutory shares: the mother one half, 6,000,000 yen; the four children one eighth each, 1,500,000 yen. From the "equal split of 3,000,000 yen each" the mother first mentioned, each child's share halved, and there was one more party.
To contact the child of the first marriage, I found the address from the supplementary family-register record (戸籍の附票) and wrote a letter. That the forty-ninth day had passed, what the estate contained, and that the statutory share was 1,500,000 yen. The reply came two weeks later: "I do not remember his face, but I will accept the statutory share." The agreement was the mother 6,000,000 yen and the four children 1,500,000 yen each, exactly the statutory shares. The child of the first marriage sealed the agreement with a registered seal, sent a seal certificate, and it was finished in three months without a single meeting. I wrote above that people are often surprised that "the first wife's child has rights too," but in this family the mother said, "If there is such a person, of course," and that is what finished the agreement in three months.
One other thing we confirmed in this family. The mother said that the father's mother (her mother-in-law, 91) was alive in a care home. A lineal ascendant of the second rank. But since there were children of the first rank, the mother-in-law was not an heir. The mother asked, "Should I give her something too?" and we settled that, since she is not legally an heir, there is no need to include her in the agreement, and anything given would be a gift from the mother to the mother-in-law. The line "if even one person of an earlier rank exists, people of a later rank do not become heirs" was, in this family, about the 91-year-old mother-in-law.
The range of heirs is settled by the family register. When you collect all the registers of the deceased from birth to death, children or adoptions the family did not know about sometimes come to light. Hold the discussion with "the heirs on the register," not "the family you know." Fix this principle at the start, and you prevent the later procedures becoming void. How to collect the registers is set out in another article on this site.
The family whose mother said "an equal split is fine" ended with the mother at 6,000,000 yen and four children at 1,500,000 yen each. The fourth child was in the third register. Put as a chart of this family's division of the 12,000,000 yen estate: mother (spouse) 6,000,000 yen; eldest daughter 1,500,000; eldest son 1,500,000; second son 1,500,000; child of the previous marriage 1,500,000. The spouse takes one half, the children together one half, and with four children that is one eighth each. I wrote at the end that you should "hold the discussion with the heirs on the register, not the family you know." Because this family looked at the third register before starting the discussion, they never produced an agreement that would have been void. That alone was reason enough to come the week after the forty-ninth day.
Written by: 長澤 湊（licensed real-estate transaction specialist, administrative scrivener, assistant surveyor） Content checked on: 2026-10-14
This article is a general explanation of Japanese rules and procedures, not advice on an individual case. Figures and rules are as of the date shown. For your own situation, consult a lawyer, judicial scrivener, tax accountant or administrative scrivener in Japan.