The defining features of Japanese style rulesets are
Compare with Chinese rules.
Official Rulesets:
Japanese Style Rulesets:
Commentaries:
Because the Japanese rules make use of Territory Scoring, which penalizes plays in your own territory, there needs to be some procedure for resolving life and death disputes at the end of the game without having to resume play. See Bent Four In The Corner for one example and Question About Japanese Scoring for some discussion.
The 1949 Japanese rules, the first formally written Japanese ruleset, resolved problematic situations with special rulings. However, the ad hoc character of those rulings drew criticism.
The 1989 rules were an improvement in the sense that such cases are now decided by method. The drawback is that the method is not easy to understand, and still produces some unexpected and peculiar results.
In any case, actual disputes are very rare, and normally easily resolved.
See Discussion for more.