Collecting Withheld Child Support Payments in Japan

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Any court-ordered payments and / or court-negotiated payments and or visitation rights can either not or only with great difficulty be enforced. Means to collect from deadbeat dads are very limited. You need to know where the ex lives, where he works, and what is bank account details are.  If you have his address and his workplace, you can send him a collection warrant issued by the District Court ("chihou-sainbansho"). If he doesn't pick it up from the post office, you can send it to his workplace, which is then recorded as "warrant served" at the court.  You can then proceed to attach his salary for any amount he is in arrears. The court will issue an order to attach his salary ("kyuuryou-sashiosae-meirei") and serve it to hubbie's company. If you're lucky, it gets taken out of his bonus, or even straight out of his accumulated retirement allowance fund.

Watch out, present and future payments cannot be attached, only arrears, and to the point when they're fully paid. If husband then switches workplaces, you're screwed, you have to find him. If you have his bank account, the court order ("sashiosae-meirei") is issued to the bank, and they will pay out. Same here, only for back payments, and when hubby switches banks after that, you gotta start over searching for the bank... Seizure of property ("shisan-sashiosae" or "zaisan-sashiosae") is possible only, when it is not put up for collateral, and when it is free of any loans (cars, computers etc.).  Even a deadbeat is allowed to keep 210,000 Yen per month for his own living expenses.

Speculation: These same mechanisms may apply to other types of payments also, which would explain reported difficulties of verifying the financial situation and making collections from a wife/mother, who statistically speaking, is less likely to have a job.  It also explains the preponderance of private detective agencies that advertise that they can find bank accounts.

In case you are wondering, it does seem possible for a man to be awarded child support also.

One source says that future payments can be taken from salary once a pattern of delinquency has been established.