Legal Affairs Bureau

A local office of the Ministry of Justice (法務省). The Legal Affairs Bureaus and the District Legal Affairs Bureaus (地方法務局) are set up under the Ministry (Act for Establishment of the Ministry of Justice, Article 15), and handle its work on nationality, family registers (戸籍), registration (登記), deposits (供託) and notarization, among other things (Articles 4 and 18). The Minister of Justice may open branch offices of either (Article 19). Under the Real Property Registration Act, the registration of land and buildings is handled, as a registry office (登記所), by the Legal Affairs Bureau or District Legal Affairs Bureau for the place where the property lies, or by one of their branch offices (支局) or sub-branch offices (出張所) (Real Property Registration Act, Article 6, paragraph (1)); the work of a registry office is done by registrars (登記官), whom the head of the Legal Affairs Bureau or District Legal Affairs Bureau designates from among the Ministry of Justice officials working there (Article 9).