Registration

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)).