Yuko Miyazaki

Yuko Miyazaki is a lawyer and former justice of the Supreme Court of Japan, serving from 2018 to 2021.

She was born on 9 July 1951.[1] Miyazaki earned her legal education respectively from the University of Tokyo (Faculty of Law; 1976) and Harvard Law School (1984). In 1979, after having worked as a legal apprentice, Miyazaki registered with the Daiichi Tokyo Bar Association and began practicing as a taxation attorney.[2] In 1979, she was hired as a permanent attorney at the law firm Nagashima & Ohno.[3][4] She became legal counsel for the World Bank in 1984. Miyazaki also taught as a visiting professor at Tokyo University and Kyoto University.[2] In January 2018, she became the sixth female appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan.[5][6][7] Miyazaki is noted as foregoing tradition and becoming the first justice to issue rulings under her maiden name.[6] Members of the Supreme Court have a mandatory retirement age of 70, so Miyazaki retired in 2021.[8]

She is appointed as International Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court for the period of 5 January 2022 to 4 January 2024.[9]

Notable rulings

Separate last names case

On June 23, 2021, Miyazaki dissented in 11-4 decision involving a married couple that wished to have their marriage registration accepted under separate last names. The majority found that the provisions of the Civil Code of Japan and the Family Register Act that require married couples to have the same last name do not violate Article 24 of the Japanese Constitution, but in a dissenting option with Katsuya Uga, they would have ordered the city to accept their marriage registration.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ Martindale-Hubbell International Law Directory. Martindale-Hubbell. 1998. ISBN 9781561602759.
  2. ^ a b "裁判所｜MIYAZAKI Yuko". Courts in Japan. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
  3. ^ Trickey, Erick (23 January 2019). "A Pioneer's Logic". Harvard Law Today. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
  4. ^ The Tax Management International Forum. Tax Management International. 2002.
  5. ^ "New Supreme Court justice sees no problem with elective dual-surname system". Mainichi Daily News. 2018-01-10. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
  6. ^ a b Osumi, Magdalena (2018-01-10). "Newly minted Japanese Supreme Court justice will issue rulings under maiden name, breaking with long tradition". The Japan Times Online. ISSN 0447-5763. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
  7. ^ Kingston, Jeff (2019-02-18). Critical Issues in Contemporary Japan. Routledge. ISBN 9781351139625.
  8. ^ "Former Justices | 裁判所 - Courts in Japan". www.courts.go.jp. Retrieved 2023-05-26.
  9. ^ "Media release: Appointments, extension of appointments and reappointments of Supreme Court judges and international judges to the Singapore International Commercial Court". Supreme Court of Singapore. 2021-11-15. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  10. ^ 市町村長処分不服申立て却下審判に対する 抗告棄却決定に対する特別抗告事件 (Supreme court of Japan 2021), [/https://www.courts.go.jp/app/files/hanrei_jp/412/090412_hanrei.pdf Text].