A shipowner must register their ship and obtain a certificate of the vessel's nationality pursuant to the provisions of the Ship Act (Act No. 46 of 1899).
船舶所有者は、船舶法（明治三十二年法律第四十六号）の定めるところに従い、登記をし、かつ、船舶国籍証書の交付を受けなければならない。
The provisions of the preceding paragraph do not apply to a ship with a gross tonnage of less than 20 tons.
ship
「船舶」
In the part on maritime commerce (except Article 747), a ship used for navigation for the purpose of commercial transactions (商行為), other than rowboats and other boats driven only or mainly by oars.
Defined inArticle 684, paragraph (1)
registration
登記
Entry in a public register kept by a registry office (登記所) — a Legal Affairs Bureau or one of its branch offices — so that the matter is made public (Real Property Registration Act, Articles 1 and 6, paragraph (1)). Rights in land and buildings, such as ownership, a superficies (地上権), a statutory lien (先取特権), a mortgage and a right of lease (賃借権), can be registered under that Act (Article 3), and matters the Commercial Code, the Companies Act and other Acts require to be registered are registered under the Commercial Registration Act (Article 1). Registration also lets a right be asserted against third parties: acquiring, losing or changing a right in rem (物権) in land or a building, such as ownership, cannot be asserted against third parties until it is registered (Civil Code, Article 177), and a matter the Companies Act requires to be registered cannot be asserted against a third party who does not know of it until it has been registered, nor, even after that, against one who had a justifiable reason for not knowing of the registration (Companies Act, Article 908, paragraph (1)).
Written by AI using Real Property Registration Act, Arts. 1, 3, 6, Commercial Registration Act, Art. 1, Civil Code, Art. 177 and Companies Act, Art. 908 as a reference.