What have you learned from of your visits overseas?
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Mr. Iwasawa
In Ontario, Canada, we learned about both statutory guardianship and
voluntary guardianship, which was most interesting in that
the two systems are integrated into one structure,
administered by the Public Guardian and Trustee. It
is also possible that one can be eligible to become a guardian
if his ability is assessed by an independent organization, for
which specialists are trained. In Quebec, Canada, we were
impressed by the practice jointly administrated by
mental-medical specialist and social workers in evaluating
individuals.
In Europe, we looked into the German system where there is an "Adult Care Law" (See
Footnote 1). The system has been widely utilized for last five
years and is supervised by judges in determining the extent of
care required in each individual case. The number of cases
reached 750,000 and forced the judges go on strike. Compared to
the German system, it is clear that the Japanese incompetency
system is barely utilized, with the number of requests
being less than two thousand per year. The explosive number of
cases in Germany became a financial burden, resulting in a shift
toward the passage of a voluntary guardianship law in January
this year.
Footnote 1: Adult Care Law
There is a clause in the Kinship Section of German Civil Code that is equivalent to the
Incompetence Clause in Japanese law, stipulating adult
guardianship which turned into the 1990 care law called
Betreuungsgesetz.
This was an integration of the declaration
of incompetence and care system for handicapped.
What are some of the practices you think applicable in Japan?
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Mr. Iwasawa
There are many, but what I feel strongly about is the basic concept and practice
not to depend totally an evaluation done by mental-medical
specialists. Both in Ontario and in Quebec, the ability to
handle life in general is more highly regarded than mental
ability as evaluated by mental specialists. In Germany, the
"Adult Care Law" deals primarily with physically
handicapped people rather than the mentally handicapped. The
spirit of this law is that family doctors and social workers
have the stronger say.
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