Photo/Illutration The Supreme Court in Tokyo (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Government coffers received a record 64.7 billion yen ($500 million) boost in fiscal 2021 from the assets of the deceased who had no heirs, according to the Supreme Court.

“In addition to there being more people who are older, who live on their own and who don’t prepare a will, a rise in property prices has inflated the prices of land and other assets of the deceased,” said Kotaro Yoshimura, a lawyer who has served as an "inheritance administrator." “These factors have pushed up the value of such assets.”

The 64.7-billion-yen figure was 7.8 percent more than the previous fiscal year and almost twice as much as 10 years ago. 

It is also six times what it was 20 years ago, as the figure was around 10.7 billion yen in fiscal 2001 and about 33.2 billion yen in fiscal 2011.

When someone dies, if there is no heir to the person’s assets and no will has been prepared, family courts can appoint an “inheritance administrator” to handle the assets if an interested party makes a request to the effect.

The inheritance administrator pays any taxes or utility bills the person had left unpaid.

The administrator then ensures there is no heir to the deceased’s assets.

If there is someone according to Japanese law “a person with a special connection,” such as people who lived with and performed domestic chores for the deceased, the inheritance administrator allocates part of the deceased person’s assets to that individual based on a family court’s decision and other factors.

The rest of the assets go into the government’s coffers.

An increasing number of people have been requesting family courts appoint inheritance administrators in recent years.

A record 27,208 such requests were made in 2021, or 1.7 times more than 10 years ago, according to court data.

However, there are also cases where no such requests are made because the deceased person’s assets are too small.

In such cases, the assets, such as properties, are left untouched.

Even if people have no heirs, they can leave their inheritance to anyone of their choosing if they prepare a valid will, experts said.

Hisami Akaishi, who is a certified administrative procedures legal specialist knowledgeable about inheriting assets and “shukatsu,” preparing for the end of one’s life, has seen cases in which people die in the middle of preparing their will.

In other cases, older people lose the ability to prepare a will due to a lowered mental capacity, according to Akaishi.

“Older people with no heirs should prepare a will while they are still fit and healthy,” she said.

According to the Cabinet Office, 6.71 million people 65 or older lived on their own as of 2020, 1.4 times the figure from 10 years ago.

The Cabinet Office expects the number to rise to about 8 million in 2030.

The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research found that 28 percent of 50-year-old men and 18 percent of women of the same age were unmarried as of 2020.

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