Beendigung von Dauerschuldverträgen in Japan: Ein Reformvorschlag und seine Vereitelung

Abstract

The Intermediate Draft for a Reform of the (Japanese) Law of Obligations included a draft provision that provided for a limitation of the possibility to end continuing contracts upon expiry of the contract term (and a similar one for the cancellation of unlimited continuing contracts). This draft provision was deleted during subsequent revisions of the Intermediate Draft that resulted in the current bill, in view of numerous unfavourable opinions. The legal problem which the draft provision sought to solve, however, is a frequent issue in Japanese court cases. The courts tend to treat the issue in different ways. The Supreme Court had yet no opportunity to decide on the legal issue. The author describes the reasons behind the motive to draft the provision as well as for its deletion. Moreover, he illustrates the case law in Japan on the legal issue in regard of the ending of continuing contracts and comes to the conclusion that one single and general rule to regulate the issue is not desirable, because such a rule cannot cope with all the various kinds of continuing contracts.