If the judicial decision being sought in pending litigation is connected with the validity or invalidity of the legal relationship in dispute, a party may expand the claim and request a declaratory judgment concerning that legal relationship; provided, however, that this does not apply if the request for a declaration concerning that relationship is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of another court (excluding one determined by an agreement between the parties pursuant to the provisions of Article 11).
裁判が訴訟の進行中に争いとなっている法律関係の成立又は不成立に係るときは、当事者は、請求を拡張して、その法律関係の確認の判決を求めることができる。ただし、その確認の請求が他の裁判所の専属管轄(当事者が第十一条の規定により合意で定めたものを除く。)に属するときは、この限りでない。
If litigation as referred to in the preceding paragraph is pending before the court specified in any of the items of Article 6, paragraph (1), and the request for a declaration as referred to in the preceding paragraph is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of another court pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (1) of that Article, the provisions of the proviso to the preceding paragraph do not apply.
If, pursuant to the provisions concerning exclusive jurisdiction, Japanese courts have no jurisdiction over a request for a declaration as referred to in paragraph (1), a party may not request a declaratory judgment as referred to in that paragraph.
The provisions of Article 143, paragraphs (2) and (3) apply mutatis mutandis to the expansion of a claim under the provisions of paragraph (1).