Debts, Family, and Identity after the Collapse of the Bubble. Miyabe Miyuki's All She Was Worth

The burst of the Japanese asset price bubble in 1991 ignited a wave of panic in the country’s market. This did not only affect major corporations, but spread its effects to the single consumers. During the period of growth and enthusiasm, many of them borrowed carelessly, and the post-bubble era left a consumer class haunted with debts. The problem had such dimensions that the legislator had to radically change the norms about over-indebtedness and personal insolvency. The novel Kasha (All She Was Worth, 1992) is set in this historical period. A crime novel, the book discusses Japanese personal bankruptcy and insolvency procedures with the precision of a law handbook. Moreover, it addresses all the intricacies of the peculiar koseki registration system, a unique feature of Japanese family law. The novel shows how in Japan “official” identity and family ties are often more important and effective than the substantive, “real” situation behind them. In Japan the book, which won several prizes received significant attention from law scholars, but outside the country there is no structured analysis of a text so powerful in explaining the legal and human fallout of the Bubble’s burst. This paper intends to fill this gap.