Principally, it is difficult to find Japanese court rulings that admitted the moral damages on the breach of contract, if the physical damages was not along with it. it seems to be thought that the moral damages is compensated by payment of the material damages.
Certainly, the injury party can get moral damages if he can prove specific emotional distress that is not covered by the compensation of the material loss. Court rulings that admitted the moral damages without physical distress are found in several investment cases: securities, commodity futures, variable life insurance and so on. In addition, there are many court decisions admitted moral damages in the case that the money lending business rejected to disclose the lending history to borrowers without reasonable excuse.
Fukuoka Appeal Court, on March 9th 2006, admitted the claims of plaintiffs in the case of a defective apartment.[1] The plaintiffs are sectional ownership of the apartment. According to the plaintiffs petition, there were serious defects in the part of joint ownership space in the apartment, therefore the value of the apartment got lower after these defects were repaired. The plaintiffs claim damages: difference of declined value of the apartment, attorney’s fee and moral damages.
The court ordered the defendant to pay compensation to the plaintiff within their claim. Regarding the moral damages, the court ruled that the plaintiffs were in the situation equivalent to be rewarded the emotional distress suffered damages of loudness and dusts by repairing the defects. However, the amount of moral damages in this case was only JPY 200,000 to 300,000.
[1] http://www.courts.go.jp/hanrei/pdf/20070531182751.pdf
