In Germany incest remains to be a crime in German criminal law. The German Federal High Constitutional Court hold it as constitutional in 2000. Certainly, it is generally important to maintain an incest taboo. However in Japan, incest between adults is not punishable and is not considered to be a crime. Herein the Japanese culture differs from the German one. In Japan incest between adults was ever treated as family issue, where there is no legitimate reason for the state to intervene or to criminalize it. As a result there is almost no discussion in public about incest issues in Japan, and sadly this is also true for “incest with children”. On the other hand, it is clear that sexual abuse on children is not a family problem. In order to prevent child abuse in Japan, social welfare intervention and civil intervention are provided. The paper discusses the effectiveness of these interventions and explains – as a consequence – why such interventions shall prevail, while there is no need to criminalize incest between adults in modern societies.

In Germany incest remains to be a crime in German criminal law. The German Federal High Constitutional Court hold it as constitutional in 2000. Certainly, it is generally important to maintain an incest taboo. However in Japan, incest between adults is not punishable and is not considered to be a crime. Herein the Japanese culture differs from the German one. In Japan incest between adults was ever treated as family issue, where there is no legitimate reason for the state to intervene or to criminalize it. As a result there is almost no discussion in public about incest issues in Japan, and sadly this is also true for “incest with children”. On the other hand, it is clear that sexual abuse on children is not a family problem. In order to prevent child abuse in Japan, social welfare intervention and civil intervention are provided. The paper discusses the effectiveness of these interventions and explains – as a consequence – why such interventions shall prevail, while there is no need to criminalize incest between adults in modern societies.