Japan Settles a ¥600,000 Claim in One Day — Unless the Defendant Says No

What is a small claims action in Japan?

It is a special track inside an ordinary lawsuit, not a separate court. Article 368(1) of the Code of Civil Procedure lets a plaintiff in a Summary Court (簡易裁判所) ask for a small claims trial where the suit seeks payment of money and the value of the claim is ¥600,000 or less. A claim for anything other than money, such as returning goods or vacating a flat, is outside it however little it is worth.

Three rules frame it. You must ask for small claims treatment when you file, not later (Article 368(2)). You may use it no more than 10 times a year at the same Summary Court, and you must declare how many times you have used it that year (Article 368(3)); a false declaration can bring a non-criminal fine of up to ¥100,000 (Article 381). And the figure that counts is the principal: interest, late-payment damages, penalties and costs claimed alongside it are not added in (Article 9(2)), while separate claims joined in one suit are added together (Article 9(1)).

What does it cost to file since May 2026?

The fee changed shape on 21 May 2026, when the reformed Code of Civil Procedure took full effect and civil litigation in Japan went digital. Until then you paid the fee in revenue stamps and, separately, prepaid the postage the court would need to serve the papers. The postage is now folded into the fee, which as a rule is paid electronically through Pay-easy, from internet banking or a bank ATM. Filing online through the courts' mints system costs ¥1,100 less than filing on paper.

Against the claim, the fee is small: ¥7,400 is about 1.2% of ¥600,000. The costs that matter lie elsewhere. Article 61 of the Code puts court costs on the losing party, but in Japan court costs do not include lawyers' fees, so a winner who hired counsel still pays counsel.

If you cannot afford the fee, the court can grant litigation aid (訴訟上の救助) under Article 82, which defers it, provided the claim is not plainly without prospect of success. Separately, the Japan Legal Support Center (Houterasu) runs a civil legal aid scheme that advances lawyers' fees to people of limited means.

How does the one-day hearing work?

The Supreme Court describes the procedure as intended to resolve the dispute in a trial that is completed within a day. The Code makes that the default, not an aspiration: unless there are special circumstances, the hearing must be completed on the first date for oral argument (Article 370(1)), and judgment is pronounced immediately after argument closes unless the court considers that inappropriate (Article 374(1)).

The judge may be joined by a judicial commissioner (司法委員), someone the District Court selects in advance each year and the court assigns to the case, who helps with settlement or gives an opinion on the case (Article 279). One took part in 1,592 of the 5,707 small claims cases concluded in 2024.

A defendant who ignores the summons usually loses. If they neither file a written answer nor appear, the facts in your complaint are treated as admitted (Article 159(3)). Of the 2,706 small claims judgments given in 2024, 1,779 were given in the plaintiff's favour against a defendant who did not appear. Of the 907 given after both sides appeared, the plaintiff won 636.

Can the defendant refuse a small claims trial?

Moving to ordinary proceedings does not end the case, and dates already fixed are kept (Article 373(5)). What you lose is speed and finality. The court can hold as many hearings as it needs, evidence is no longer confined to what is in the room, the defendant may counterclaim, which Article 369 forbids inside a small claims action, and the loser can appeal to the District Court. A defendant with a claim of their own against you has an obvious reason to opt out.

So prepare for both outcomes. Build the case as if you have one hearing, because you may, and expect that it could run longer, because the defendant decides.

What can the judge order besides payment?

A small claims judgment can soften a win. If the court upholds the claim but finds it especially necessary in view of the defendant's means, it may set a later payment date or order instalments over no more than three years from the judgment (Article 375(1)). It may add that late-payment damages accruing after the suit was filed are waived if the defendant pays on schedule. Instalments must come with an acceleration clause, so one missed payment brings the balance due (Article 375(2)), and neither side can challenge those terms (Article 375(3)).

The other half of the bargain protects you. A judgment for the plaintiff must carry a declaration of provisional enforcement (Article 376(1)), so you can enforce it at once, before it becomes final, without waiting for the objection period to run out.

Can you appeal a small claims judgment?

No. Article 377 bars an appeal against a final small claims judgment. The one route is an objection (異議) to the same Summary Court, lodged within two weeks of service of the judgment (Article 378(1)). The filing fee is ¥500.

An objection reopens the case in the same court. It returns to where it stood before argument closed and is heard in ordinary proceedings (Article 379(1)). Some small claims limits follow it, since there is still no counterclaim and the court keeps its power to order instalments (Article 379(2)), and the judgment given after the objection cannot be appealed either (Article 380(1)). Only a special appeal on constitutional grounds survives (Article 380(2)). Objections are rare: 149 were lodged nationwide in 2024, a year with 2,706 small claims judgments.

Is a payment demand faster for an undisputed debt?

Often, yes. A payment demand (支払督促) under Articles 382 to 396 of the Code is issued by a court clerk on the strength of your application alone, without hearing the debtor (Article 386(1)). It has no ceiling. The fee is half the value-based lawsuit fee plus a flat ¥2,700 on paper or ¥2,500 online, which comes to ¥5,700 or ¥5,500 on a ¥600,000 debt, and there is no hearing unless the debtor fights.

The weakness is that any objection ends it. An objection before the declaration voids the demand to that extent (Article 390), and an objection at either stage turns the matter into an ordinary lawsuit, treated as filed at the Summary Court or District Court for the place where the demand was issued (Article 395). That is normally the debtor's home court, not yours. The value-based part of the fee you paid is credited against the lawsuit fee, so you pay the difference.

Choose by one question: will the other side contest this? A tenant who has simply stopped paying rent, or a customer who acknowledged the invoice in writing and went quiet, is a payment demand. A dispute over whether the work was done properly is likely to draw an objection, and then you are litigating at the debtor's court; a small claims action is the better start. Creditors have voted with their feet. In 2024 Summary Courts received 257,159 payment demand applications and 7,186 small claims actions, and the Supreme Court's table records an objection from 59,467 of the 254,172 debtors against whom a demand was issued that year, about 23%.

Do you need a lawyer, and can a foreigner use it?

No lawyer is required, and most people do without one. Of the 5,707 small claims cases concluded in 2024, 4,976, or 87%, had no lawyer or judicial scrivener on either side. If you want help, the Summary Court is the one court where a certified judicial scrivener (認定司法書士) may represent you, in cases up to ¥1,400,000 (Judicial Scriveners Act, Article 3), and where the court may permit someone who is not a lawyer to act for you (Code of Civil Procedure, Article 54(1)).

Three limits catch foreign residents and overseas creditors. Proceedings are conducted in Japanese (Court Act, Article 74); if a party does not understand Japanese, an interpreter is brought in (Code of Civil Procedure, Article 154). The court may hold the hearing by video link if it considers that appropriate, after hearing the parties (Article 87-2), but that is its decision, not your right. And both fast routes need a debtor who can be reached in Japan: a small claims action cannot continue if the defendant can be summoned only by public notice (Article 373(3)), and a payment demand is available only where it can be served in Japan without public notice (Article 382). A debtor who has left Japan, or vanished, puts you in ordinary proceedings.

Where you file matters too. The default is the Summary Court for the defendant's domicile, but a money claim may also be filed with the court for the place of payment (Article 5), and under Article 484(1) of the Civil Code a money debt is payable at the creditor's current domicile unless the parties agreed otherwise. A small claims plaintiff can therefore often sue at their own local court. A payment demand offers no such choice.

Do not wait too long. Under Article 166(1) of the Civil Code, a claim is extinguished five years after you knew you could exercise it, and in any event ten years after you could.

You won. How do you get paid?

A small claims judgment in your favour can be enforced at once, and it needs no separate certificate of execution: Article 25 of the Civil Execution Act lets execution proceed on the judgment itself, the same exemption given to a payment demand that carries a declaration of provisional execution. If the defendant objects and applies for a stay, enforcement may be stayed while the objection is heard.

The small claims track also has its own collection procedure. Small claims execution against claims (少額訴訟債権執行) lets you ask the court clerk of the same Summary Court to attach money owed to the debtor, typically salary or a bank deposit (Civil Execution Act, Article 167-2). The fee is ¥4,000 (Act on Costs of Civil Procedure, Schedule 1, item 9), and Summary Courts received 566 such applications in 2024. Execution against other assets follows the ordinary route under the Civil Execution Act.

An instalment judgment needs a calendar. If a payment is missed, the acceleration clause brings the whole balance due and the judgment can be enforced for all of it.

How to prepare when you get one hearing

One hearing means every weakness in your case surfaces on the same afternoon it is decided. Say the case out loud before the date, answer the hardest question the other side could put, and find the missing document while there is still time to fetch it.