Where no special arrangements have been made between husband and wife with respect to either party’s property the law directs a certain course to be followed in its use and disposal. In the first place, while the owner of any property is naturally deemed to possess absolute right to the interest or profit arising therefrom, any property which has been acquired but cannot be definitely credited to either party, is to be taken, pending production of proof to the contrary, as belonging to the head of the family. The head has also the right to put to use the other party’s property and derive profit therefrom, provided the character of such property remains unaltered. Thus, the head may cultivate the other’s fields or rent them to a tenant and occupy or rent the other’s houses, but may not, for instance, convert a field into building land or a dwelling-house into a godown. This power is given to the head to offset the obligation he or she is under to bear all expenses resulting from the marriage, that is, to defray all household expenses, support the family, and pay for the bringing up of the children. If, however, the head is in needy circumstances, the other party, if possessed of separate property, must support the family. The husband, whether head of the family or not, has the management of his wife’s property. He may make improvements in it; but he cannot without her consent rent her land for more than five years running or her house for more than three. And if the wife is afraid of her husband’s abusing this discretionary power, she may request the judicial authorities to order him to deposit security against any loss that the estate might suffer through his mismanagement. The wife is to be considered as her husband’s agent in household matters, such as the provision of food and raiment. The husband may, however, reserve the right to repudiate partially or wholly her acts as his proxy; but he cannot thereby cancel his obligations to those persons who have been dealing with her in good faith, believing her to possess the powers usually delegated to the wife. Having thus given an outline of woman’s legal position in matrimony, we may now pass on to the conditions of divorce. The laxity of the custom in regard to divorce was, as we have already observed, partially remedied by the new Civil Code, which is based on European laws and modified by existing Japanese usages. In the matter of divorce, it makes many concessions to the customs hitherto prevailing in Japan, as a strict adhesion to the European laws on the subject would call for a too drastic change in the habits of the people who have for the most part been accustomed to think lightly of divorce. In the old times it was sufficient to give the wife a declaration of divorce, which, from its shortness, came to be known as “the three lines and a half.”