The Japanese family law makes clear that the welfare of children must be firstly considered in resoving a family dispute such as divorce where the parents are to decide which of them should continue to hold parental rights and duties over their children after divorce. The welfare of children as general principles is established by a series of precedents but not by the provisions of the statutes, and criteria and factors in making a decision on the matter of chidren have been developed to improve further protection of children in volved in their parents` conflict. Indeed, the welfare of children is regarded as unquestionable principle in interpreting the substantial law. In practice, if parents show deep difference in recognizing and understanding on how to resolve the matters of chidren, a family court investigation officer can intervene in the case to investigate relevant facts and submit a report to a family court judge who shall finally issue an order over children. In this respect, a specialist such as family court investigation officer can take part in a dispute in order to protect the interests of children from the professional point of view. However, form the viewpoint of procedural protection, there are some issues to remain. For instance, while the parents are eligible to express their intention and wishes as an independent party to their dispute, children have neither their own representatives apart form their parents nor opportunities to state their interests and wishes at any stage throughout process of the dispute under the current family law, provided they can be interviewed if they are over fifteen years of age. The result of their parents` dispute are likely to bring about serious affects on the children directly or indirectly so that the children should be treated unfairly unless they are given an opportunity to voice their own interests in the process of dispute resolution. In the modern law, it may be a widespread principle that a party to case should be treated as an independent person whether or not s/he attains the age of majority. If s/he is a minor, s/he should be represented by a person whose interests are not in conflict with him/her. In fact, it may happen that parents can make arrangements over the children`s matter at the expense of the interests of children which leads to infringe upon the welfare of children. Such result can be avoided if s/he is represented by a person assuring the interests of childrenindependently The current family law is not equipped with adequate procedural protection so that it would be worth to review the family law relating to legal status of children, in particular focusing on the procedural protection of children caught up in their parents` dispute.