Cancellation

Ending a contract by one party's notice to the other, where the contract or the law gives that party a right to cancel (Civil Code, Article 540, paragraph (1)). The Civil Code lets a party cancel for the other's failure to perform: after a demand to perform within a reasonable time that is not met, unless what is still missing is minor (Article 541), or at once where performance has become wholly impossible, or the other party has clearly refused to perform, among other cases where performance clearly will not come (Article 542, paragraph (1)). On cancellation each party must put the other back in the position before the contract, and damages can still be claimed (Article 545, paragraphs (1) and (4)); a lease, though, ends only from then on (Article 620). Cancellation differs from rescission (取消し), after which the act is treated as void from the start (Article 121).