News
There are two laws in Japan that govern maritime cargo transport. One is the Commercial Code, which was enacted in 1899, and the other is the Act for International Carriage of Commodities by Sea, which was established in 1957 and altered in 1992, when Tokyo ratified the second protocol of the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law relating to Bills of Lading (the Hague-Visby Rules). As for the Commercial Code, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ)’s Legislative Council adopted an outline of revisions and submitted it to the Minister of Justice in February. When specific articles and clauses are decided, it is expected that a bill to revise the code, the first such bill in 117 years, will be presented to the ongoing ordinary session of the Diet.
Japan International Freight Forwarders Association Inc. (JIFFA) had sent members to the Legislative Council’s Commercial Code (regarding transportation and maritime trade) Subcommittee and contributed to the formation of the outline of revisions by making specific proposals from its members’ point of view and other efforts. To inform member companies of the revisions in the important law that will be concerned deeply with forwarders’ daily business routines, JIFFA held a briefing session on March 11, having as a lecturer Shuji Yamaguchi, a legal adviser to JIFFA and a member of the Commercial Code Subcommittee.
At the briefing session, Toshio Asada, Councilor of JIFFA explained the necessity for and the background of revising the Commercial Code, while Yamaguchi gave a lecture on major revisions that will be made, including new articles and clauses.
Yamaguchi focused on an obligation to report dangerous goods, which is not provided for in the current Commercial Code. During sessions of the subcommittee, transporters and shippers had had the most differing views on whether shippers would be allowed to accept culpability or have to admit non-fault liability when failing to fulfill the obligation, he said. There had been legal precedents in the U.S. and the U.K. requiring shippers to admit non-fault liability in such cases, the lawyer continued. Agreeing that it will be too hard for shippers to accept non-fault liability, the subcommittee had decided in the end to allow them to admit culpability, he said, adding the subcommittee had also agreed to make shippers be responsible for proving they are not culpable. From the perspective of parties that actually transport cargo, non-vessel-operating common carriers (NVOCCs) are shippers. As such, it is unlikely that NVOCCs will take liability, Yamaguchi said. However, he promoted awareness, as they could be responsible in other countries.
As for other new regulations, multimodal transport will be defined for the first time in the revised Commercial Code. Even if commodities are damaged and/or lost outside Japan, compensation will be sought and paid in accordance with domestic laws and/or the international conventions that Japan has concluded, according to the revised law. There will be rules for waybills, too, which will enable parties to provide relevant information electronically, but the new Commercial Code does not clearly indicated how to do so.
The briefing session will be reported in detail in the May issue of JIFFA News.
