adultery, disobeyed her parent's in law, spoke excessively, stole, received bouts of jealousy or suffered from an incurable or loathsome disease or disorder. Nevertheless, there were also limits for the husband like for example he could not divorce if she observed her parent's in law's mourning sites, if she had no family to return to or if the husband's family used to be poor and since then have become richer. Japanese law Women's legal status in historical Japan was relatively better especially compared to its neighbour China until the fall of the Kamakura Shuganate in 1333. Women lost the right to inherit land, and centuries of violence by government and military class in post 1582, Japan became a normative patriarchy similar to the rest of its neighbouring civilizations. Women's legal and customary condition worsened after 1890 as it modernized its legal codes based on French and German systems, but significantly improved after post-war 1947. Indian law For the majority of history, Indians used their Hindu legal code as a basis for their rights and customs. Hindu legal code is based on the religious texts known as the dharmasatras. One of the dharmasatras was the Manu Smriti which was used prevalently during the ancient historical course of India. Manu Smriti protected women's property rights as well as rights to inheritance.But it is also insisted that women is placed under a male guardianship at all times such as father from birth, husband in marriage and sons as a widow. Aside from property rights, Hindu legal code did not grant women too many rights but fortunately interpretation of the code was very fluid depending on the local customs. Judgement and interpretation of the code was executed by local councils called the panchayats which composed of mostly male village elders but women were not always excluded. This local system fared women better than the normative Hindu code but this was reversed during colonial Anglo-Indian judiciary. The colonial takeover by the British during the 17th and 18th century had more negative than positive effects on women's rights in the Indian subcontinent. Although they managed to outlaw widow burning, female infanticide and improve age of consent, scholars agree that overall women's legal rights and freedoms were restricted during this period. The British abolished local custom laws in favor of separate religious codes for Hindus and Muslims which had harsher treatment of women. These religious codes lead