Quote:
Originally Posted by Dlanor .A. Nox
The Ushiromiya's ranking system is pretty strict what with the adults split into two groups during dinner and all, I think Jessica said she was the next in line. In Episode 1 she said she didn't want it. So I think the Ushiromiyas stick to the Rankings. But technically it would be Jessica's husband who would become the next head.
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I believe that "family head" is an internal family-use term, which has to do with the Japanese inheritance laws. Up until 2003, Japan had a 70% inheritance tax.
(It's apparently 50% now.) Which implies that if any property changes hands in the normal inheritance procedure with government involvement, it results in taxes which may actually be impossible to pay at all, and will chew up almost all of the inheritance.
To sidestep this, the transfer of 'headship', that is, control and legal ownership of joint family property, has to go outside the inheritance laws if the descendants are to receive anything. A natural way is to attach these property rights to the title of 'family head', which should actually be transferable during life, or at least magically jump to the next in line through some kind of legal fiction at the moment the current one is dead, bypassing the concept of property inheritance.