INTRODUCTION
In 2008, the insurance contract law in Japan was modernised in both form and substance.
The new Insurance Act1 was enacted to replace the section on insurance in the Commercial
Code,2 which had remained basically unchanged since its codification at the end of
the nineteenth century. Some of the provisions in the Insurance Act simply restate the
rules in the Commercial Code in modern Japanese language; many others have changed
the previous rules; others have clarified the issues disputed under the Commercial Code.
The new Insurance Act will enter into force on 1 April 2010.
The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the major changes made by the
Insurance Act by considering how such changes were brought about and by comparing
them with the recent reforms of insurance contract law in other jurisdictions.3 The