Observing current social issues in Japan from the perspective of Roman law: part 3

Abstract

Observing current social issues in Japan from the perspective of Roman law: part 3 Professor Mariko Igimi, Kyushu University, writes her third part argument on why we still have much to learn from Antiquity and Roman Law in relation to the current issues of an aging society in Japan. Professor Mariko argues that for former slaves who have always acted under order and supervision of their owners until they were freed, it might be difficult to start their lives independently. However, it was a very common practice that slaves owned slaves, hence there was a special word for a slave's slave, i.e., vicarius. For such slaves, it would not be an issue to run businesses on their own and earn their living independently after the manumission. While there is diversity in treatments of freed slaves, most attached to patronus would be the libertus in case who acts as a place of deposit of the former owner, where the freed slave was fully integrated into the business of the former owner. In some cases, freed slaves were independently running a business in which deposit was involved. From the wide range of relationships between former owners and freed slaves, we might be able to observe how the Romans delicately balanced the protection and the independence based on the personal bonds, competence and experiences of individual freed slaves etc. Looking at the ageing population of Japan, she argues that humans are not “equal” in their competence and weakness, hardship, social and family relationships etc., which is causing some of the major issues we are facing today, particularly in an aging society like Japan.