Habitual residence

The place where a person habitually lives; the Act on General Rules for Application of Laws uses the term without defining it. That Act makes the law of a person's habitual residence govern, among other things: for a consumer contract, the law of the consumer's habitual residence where the parties chose no law, and its specific mandatory rules the consumer tells the business to apply where they chose another, except in the cases Article 11, paragraph (6) lists, such as a consumer who went to a place under the same law as the business's office the contract relates to and made the contract there, unless the business had invited them, where they habitually live, to make it there (Article 11); for a tort of defamation, the law of the victim's habitual residence (Article 19); for the effects of a marriage, the law of the habitual residence the spouses share where they do not share a national law (本国法) (Article 25), which also governs matrimonial property and divorce, though a divorce where one spouse is a Japanese national habitually resident in Japan is governed by Japanese law (Articles 26 and 27); for the legal relationship between parents and child, the law of the child's habitual residence where the child's national law is not that of either parent (Article 32); and, for a person with no nationality, the law of their habitual residence in place of a national law (Article 38, paragraph (2)). Where a person's habitual residence is not known, the law of the place where they are living (居所) is applied instead, except under the rule on the effects of a marriage, which also governs matrimonial property and divorce (Article 39).