Who Makes Decisions?

Here’s a question that sounds simple but isn’t: if you can’t make decisions for yourself, who should make them for you?

In an ideal world, you’d have one trusted person who understands your values, knows your preferences, and has the legal authority to act on your behalf. In the real world, it’s more complicated.

Maybe your closest family member lives overseas and can’t realistically manage day-to-day decisions in Japan. Maybe your closest friend in Japan isn’t comfortable making major financial or medical decisions. Maybe the person you trust most isn’t the person who’s best equipped to handle bureaucracy.

This is why power of attorney documents exist – they let you designate specific people for specific types of decisions. You can have one person handle medical decisions and another handle financial decisions. You can have primary and backup decision-makers.

But you have to think through who should handle what, and you have to make sure the people you’re designating actually want the responsibility and understand what it involves.

Don’t just pick someone because they’re geographically convenient or because you think you should. Pick someone because they’re actually the right person for the job.

And definitely don’t assume that legal family relationships automatically translate to decision-making authority in Japan. Japanese law might not recognize your overseas spouse’s authority to make medical decisions, or your adult children’s right to access your bank accounts.

If you want specific people to have specific authority, you need to document that formally and legally.

Otherwise, someone else will be making those decisions, and it might not be someone you would have chosen.