Traffic Law
How much money can I get as a car accident victim in Japan?
Compensation for injury in a car accident in Japan
There are several standards of monetary compensation if you are a victim of a car accident in Japan. These standards are the CALI (compulsory automobile liability insurance) standard, voluntary insurance standard, and judicial standard (market price). In that order, you can receive the least to most compensation. To receive the judicial standard of compensation, you must have a lawyer.
For example, if you are hospitalized for one month, if the perpetrator only has CALI, you will only receive 4,200 yen a day (126,000 yen a month). If the perpetrator has voluntary insurance, you will receive 8,400 yen a day (252,000 yen a month). If you hire a lawyer, you will receive 530,000 yen a month. As you can see, the difference between the judicial standard and the regular insurance standards is very big.
Compensation amounts depend on your position in your family?
The amount of compensation you receive depends on your position in the family. If you have more people depending on you for survival, you will be compensated more. For example, if you are single, you will receive less compensation than someone who is the head of their household. If you have children, you will receive more compensation than someone who does not have children, and so on.
Compensation also depends on your job. Since lawyers have to calculate how much money you lose if you are unable to go to work during your treatment period, or if you are severely disabled and must quit work. However, it is not just regular workers that receive compensation for lost profits due to being unable to work. Even self-employed people and stay-at-home spouses (housewives or househusbands) are able to claim lost profits. Full-time stay-at-home spouses work 365 days a year, and if they are raising children, they may be working 24 hours a day, so it is natural for them to be recognized as having lost their jobs. However, it is difficult to get this recognized by insurance companies, so make sure you have a lawyer to help.
How much money will a victim who dies in a car accident receive?
The bereaved family of the victim of the fatal accident makes a claim for damages against the perpetrator and the insurance company as a civil liability. As for the compensation for the death accident, you can claim compensation for the death by evaluating the mental pain financially in addition to the damage which was actually caused. You can claim both compensation for the victim and the individual family members of the victim. There is a way to calculate the compensation for death according to the role of the victim in the family.
If the victim is the head of the house, compensation according to the judicial standard (ie. with the help of a lawyer) will be 28 million yen, if the victim is a parent or spouse, it will be 24 million yen, and if the victim is a single person or a child, it will be 20 ~ 22 million yen.
In the case of a fatal accident, in addition to compensation for death, you can claim for funeral expenses, lost profits, medical expenses, and compensation for injury. Lost profits is the future income or profit that would have been earned if the victim had not died in the accident. When the victim is young or has a high income, lost profits are often very high. In addition, if the victim was hospitalized for a certain period of time between the time of the accident and the time of their death, their family can claim the actual cost of hospitalization and compensation for the injury corresponding to the hospitalization period.
What if I am permanently disabled from the accident?
Becoming permanently disabled from a car accident is referred to as “residual disability”. The rate of compensation for residual disability is fixed according to the grade of residual disability, which is divided into 14 grades. Therefore, in order to receive compensation for residual disability, it is important to be certified with a residual disability grade. Voluntary insurance only pays compensation that is far lower than the judicial standard, so victims should hire a lawyer to receive the compensation they deserve.
Even if you feel pain, numbness, or have scars on your body after you’ve been treated for an injury, there are cases in which you won’t fall under any of the residual disability grades. In many cases, victims will have to ask a lawyer and file a lawsuit to get compensation money. If you ask a lawyer, you may be granted compensation money for residual disability even if you don’t have a grade.
This page is intended to be used for informational purposes only and should not be a substitute for obtaining professional legal advice.