Installment Sales Act

• Before issuing an individual a card (or number) for comprehensive credit, or raising its credit line (極度額), the comprehensive credit purchase intermediary must look into the person's annual income, savings, payments on credit purchases, borrowing and other matters a joint Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Cabinet Office Order (経済産業省令・内閣府令) sets, using the information a designated credit bureau (指定信用情報機関) holds, and keep a record. It must not issue the card or raise the line where the line would exceed the yearly amount the person can be expected to pay without selling or pledging their home or other assets that Order names and without using a year's minimum living costs (包括支払可能見込額, the comprehensive purchase amount projected to be affordable), multiplied by a rate the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Prime Minister set. An individual credit purchase intermediary (個別信用購入あつせん業者) must look into an individual buyer in the same way before each credit contract and must not make it where what the buyer would pay in a year exceeds that kind of yearly amount worked out for the purchase (個別支払可能見込額); the duty to look into the person and the ban each give way in cases that Order sets as not harming the person's protection.(Art. 30-2(1), Art. 30-2(2), Art. 30-2(3), Art. 30-2(4), Art. 30-2-2(1), Art. 35-3-3(1), Art. 35-3-3(2), Art. 35-3-3(3), Art. 35-3-4(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Before giving individual credit for a door-to-door or telemarketing sale (訪問販売, 電話勧誘販売), or for an individual's multilevel marketing, specified continuous services or business opportunity contract, as the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions defines them, the individual credit purchase intermediary must look into whether the seller, in soliciting it, did what that Act forbids in each of these dealings — untrue statements, deliberate concealment or intimidation — or what the Consumer Contract Act lets a consumer rescind for, and keep a record; the seller is to try to cooperate. If it finds the seller did, it must not offer or accept the credit contract, unless it has confirmed that the buyer has a special reason to need the sale or otherwise finds the buyer's interests are not, and are not likely to be, harmed.(Art. 35-3-5(1), Art. 35-3-5(2), Art. 35-3-6(1), Art. 35-3-7(1), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 6(1), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 6(2), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 6(3), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 21(1), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 21(2), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 21(3), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 34(1), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 34(2), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 34(3), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 44(1), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 44(2), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 44(3), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 52(1), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 52(2), Consumer Contract Act Art. 4(1), Consumer Contract Act Art. 4(2), Consumer Contract Act Art. 4(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where a sale on individual credit was made away from the seller's business office or similar place (営業所等), at it with a customer stopped elsewhere and brought in or lured there in a way a Cabinet Order sets, or by post after a sales call by telephone, the buyer can withdraw the offer of the credit contract, or cancel it, by a written notice sent until 8 days have passed counting from receiving the document the Act requires the credit company to give — or, if the seller or credit company misled them about this right or intimidated them so that they let the time pass, until 8 days after receiving a document stating that they still can. The sales contract then falls with it unless the notice says otherwise: neither the seller nor the credit company can claim damages, the credit company cannot claim from the buyer the money it paid the seller, the seller must pay that money back to it and bears the cost of taking back goods, the credit company must promptly refund what the buyer paid it, and any term worse for the buyer is void. Individuals' multilevel marketing, specified continuous services and business opportunity contracts on individual credit can be undone in the same way wherever they were made, within 20, 8 and 20 days respectively (for multilevel marketing, counted from the first delivery of goods bought for resale if that comes later).(Art. 35-3-10(1), Art. 35-3-10(2), Art. 35-3-10(3), Art. 35-3-10(5), Art. 35-3-10(6), Art. 35-3-10(7), Art. 35-3-10(8), Art. 35-3-10(9), Art. 35-3-10(10), Art. 35-3-10(15), Art. 35-3-9(3), Art. 35-3-11(1), Art. 35-3-11(4), Art. 35-3-11(5), Art. 35-3-11(7), Art. 35-3-11(8), Art. 35-3-11(9), Art. 35-3-11(11), Art. 35-3-11(15)) (the provisions it rests on)
• In a door-to-door or telemarketing sale on individual credit, the buyer can rescind (取り消す) their offer or acceptance of the credit contract if the seller, in soliciting it, told them something untrue about the total amount payable, the installments, the kind and content of the goods, rights or services where important to the buyer's decision, delivery, withdrawal or cancellation, or another important matter, or deliberately kept back a fact about the first five, and they contracted believing it; similar rules cover individuals' multilevel marketing, specified continuous services and business opportunity contracts. Where the sales contract is also void from the start, the credit company cannot claim from the buyer what it paid the seller and the buyer can demand back what they paid it; the right ends one year after the buyer could ratify the contract, or five years after the credit contract was made. Within one year of the credit contract, the buyer can also withdraw or cancel it where the door-to-door or telemarketing sale was for far more than daily life normally needs, as the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions sets out, unless the buyer had a special reason to need it.(Art. 35-3-13(1), Art. 35-3-13(2), Art. 35-3-13(4), Art. 35-3-13(7), Art. 35-3-14(1), Art. 35-3-15(1), Art. 35-3-16(1), Art. 35-3-12(1), Art. 35-3-12(2), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 9-2(1), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 24-2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• When a comprehensive or individual credit purchase intermediary demands payment for a purchase made through it, the buyer can assert against it any defence (抗弁) they have against the seller or service provider of that purchase, and a term worse for the buyer is void; the buyer is to try to give the intermediary, if it asks, a document stating the grounds. This does not apply where the purchase's total amount payable (for payments worked out at set times from the total used, its cash price) is below an amount a Cabinet Order sets. A buyer in a loan-affiliated installment sale (ローン提携販売) can likewise assert such defences against the lender.(Art. 30-4(1), Art. 30-4(2), Art. 30-4(3), Art. 30-4(4), Art. 30-5(1), Art. 35-3-19(1), Art. 35-3-19(2), Art. 35-3-19(3), Art. 35-3-19(4), Art. 29-4(2), Art. 29-4(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• An installment seller or a comprehensive or individual credit purchase intermediary that is not paid an installment on time can cancel the contract, or demand installments not yet due, only after demanding payment in writing (for comprehensive credit, electronically where a joint Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Cabinet Office Order (経済産業省令・内閣府令) allows) within a reasonable period of at least 20 days and not being paid within it; a term to the contrary is void. Whatever the contract says about damages or penalties, in an installment sale or comprehensive credit purchase paid in set installments, and in individual credit, the business can claim on late payment no more than the installment price or total amount payable less what has been paid, and on cancellation no more than the amounts the Act sets — for an installment sale by case, such as a usual fee for use where the goods are returned, and for credit, the total amount payable — in each case with late-payment damages at the statutory interest rate (cancellation under the buyer's own rights to withdraw or cancel has rules of its own). Durable designated goods a Cabinet Order names, sold in set installments, are presumed to remain the installment seller's property until every installment is paid.(Art. 5(1), Art. 5(2), Art. 6(1), Art. 6(2), Art. 30-2-4(1), Art. 30-2-4(2), Art. 30-3(1), Art. 30-3(2), Art. 35-3-17(1), Art. 35-3-17(2), Art. 35-3-18(1), Art. 35-3-18(2), Art. 7(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A business that takes the price in advance — selling designated goods in three or more installments over two months or more, two or more of them before delivery (前払式割賦販売, prepaid installment sales), or taking three or more payments over two months or more, before delivery or service, for goods it buys on the customer's behalf or services a Cabinet Order names (前払式特定取引, specified prepaid transactions) — needs a licence from the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry and must lodge a business security deposit (営業保証金) and report it before starting. If half the advance payments it holds on 31 March or 30 September exceed that deposit, it may make no new contracts once 50 days have passed from the day after that date until it has protected the excess, by a further deposit or a contract for a bank, another financial institution a Cabinet Order names or a body the Minister designates to deposit it, and reported this; customers have a right to be repaid from these deposits. A customer not yet given the goods or service can cancel if the business fails to protect the payments in time, is ordered to stop making contracts because its net assets fell below 90% of its capital, loses its licence or closes, has a petition for bankruptcy or similar proceedings filed against it, or stops paying its debts.(Art. 2(1)(i), Art. 2(6), Art. 11(1), Art. 35-3-61(1), Art. 16(1), Art. 16(2), Art. 16(3), Art. 18-3(1), Art. 18-3(2), Art. 18-3(4), Art. 21(1), Art. 15(1)(iii), Art. 20(1), Art. 25(1), Art. 27(1), Art. 35-3-62(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

• 1 June 2025

  The text on this site

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Penal Code, etc.

  刑法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整理等に関する法律

  Act No. 68 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 17 June 2022

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Penal Code, etc.

  刑法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整理等に関する法律

  Act No. 68 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2021

  Act Partially Amending the Installment Sales Act

  割賦販売法の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 64 of 2020The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 March 2021

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Companies Act

  会社法の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整備等に関する法律

  Act No. 71 of 2019The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2020

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Civil Code

  民法の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整備等に関する法律

  Act No. 45 of 2017The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 11 December 2019

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Companies Act

  会社法の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整備等に関する法律

  Act No. 71 of 2019The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 14 September 2019

  Act on the Development of Related Acts to Rationalize Measures concerning the Restriction of Rights of Adult Wards, etc.

  成年被後見人等の権利の制限に係る措置の適正化等を図るための関係法律の整備に関する法律

  Act No. 37 of 2019The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 14 June 2019

  Act on the Development of Related Acts to Rationalize Measures concerning the Restriction of Rights of Adult Wards, etc.

  成年被後見人等の権利の制限に係る措置の適正化等を図るための関係法律の整備に関する法律

  Act No. 37 of 2019The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 June 2018

  Act Partially Amending the Installment Sales Act

  割賦販売法の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 99 of 2016The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 December 2017

  Act Partially Amending the Installment Sales Act

  割賦販売法の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 99 of 2016The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

All 13 amendments already in force

• A comprehensive credit purchase intermediary that the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry certifies (認定) as working out, by advanced analysis meeting a Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Order's standards, what a user can pay without harming their minimum living (利用者支払可能見込額) may use that amount instead: the standard check, its limit and the article on improvement orders for them (Articles 30-2, 30-2-2 and 30-5-3) do not apply, but it must not issue a card or raise a credit line beyond the amount it works out, except in cases a joint Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Cabinet Office Order (経済産業省令・内閣府令) sets. Where such a card's credit line is no more than an amount a Cabinet Order sets, the demand before cancelling for late payment need give only the days a Cabinet Order sets, between 7 and 20.(Art. 30-5-4(1), Art. 30-5-4(6), Art. 30-5-5(1), Art. 30-5-6(1), Art. 30-5-7(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A corporation registered as a comprehensive small amount credit purchase intermediary (登録少額包括信用購入あつせん業者) may run comprehensive credit with credit lines no more than an amount a Cabinet Order sets without the ordinary registration. The standard check, its limit and the 20-day demand rule, among others, do not apply to it; instead it must work out each user's affordable amount by the advanced method it registered, using a designated credit bureau's information, and must not exceed it except in cases a joint Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Cabinet Office Order (経済産業省令・内閣府令) sets. Before cancelling for late payment it must demand payment in writing (electronically where that Order allows) within a period of at least the 7 to 20 days a Cabinet Order sets.(Art. 35-2-3(1), Art. 35-2-3(2), Art. 35-2-4(1), Art. 35-2-4(2), Art. 35-2-5(1), Art. 35-2-6(1), Art. 35-2-11(1)(xi)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The individual credit rules tied to door-to-door and telemarketing sales — the seller-conduct check and refusal, the documents to the applicant and buyer, the right to withdraw or cancel, cancellation of excessive contracts and rescission (Articles 35-3-5, 35-3-7, 35-3-9, 35-3-10, 35-3-12 and 35-3-13) — do not apply to these sales that the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions keeps out of its own rules: newspapers published by anyone other than a stock company, lawyers' services, the businesses other Acts regulate and others a Cabinet Order names, and sales where the customer asked the business to visit, or to call without being prompted by its own sales call, to make the contract, or that follow a customary form a Cabinet Order names. The right to withdraw or cancel alone (Article 35-3-10) also does not apply where that Act's own right does not: services usually performed in full at once and so performed, goods or services whose terms are usually negotiated at length or that must be provided promptly, and goods whose value falls sharply with use that the buyer used or consumed (unless the seller had them do so), or perishables delivered, as Cabinet Orders name them.(Art. 35-3-60(3), Art. 35-3-60(4), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 26(1), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 26(3), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 26(4), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 26(5), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 26(6), Act on Specified Commercial Transactions Art. 26(7)) (the provisions it rests on)
• No licence is needed for prepaid installment sales or specified prepaid transactions whose yearly amount is below a figure a Cabinet Order sets. A business already doing it when goods or services are newly designated may carry on for six months — and until its application, if made in that time, is decided — and afterwards to finish the contracts made by then.(Art. 11(1), Art. 35-3-61(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• While a designated credit bureau's service is suspended with the Minister's permission or by a disaster or other unavoidable cause, a credit purchase intermediary that cannot use its information is released from the duty to use it in its checks.(Art. 35-3-53(1), Art. 35-3-53(2), Art. 35-3-53(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A business whose licence or registration for prepaid installment sales, specified prepaid transactions, comprehensive or individual credit is revoked, lapses or is struck off the register, is still treated as licensed or registered — it or its successor — as far as needed to finish the contracts and card transactions it had made.(Art. 28(1), Art. 35-3-62(1), Art. 35-2-2(1), Art. 35-3-35(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

• The Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry licenses and registers the businesses, gives them orders and can revoke their licences and registrations; part of this work may be given to prefectural governors as a Cabinet Order sets. Before ordering a credit purchase intermediary to improve where it breaks the duties to check ability to pay, to check the seller's conduct in individual credit and refuse tainted credit, or to look after customers' information, outsourced work and complaints, the Minister must consult the Prime Minister, who may also give an opinion; the Prime Minister's powers under the Act, except those a Cabinet Order sets, are delegated to the Director-General of the Consumer Affairs Agency (消費者庁長官). The competent ministers (主務大臣: the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry with the minister responsible for the goods, rights or services) may publish, for each kind of designated goods, a standard first installment and payment period for installment sales, and recommend that an installment seller far off them raise the first installment or shorten the period.(Art. 11(1), Art. 31(1), Art. 34-2(1), Art. 47(1), Art. 30-5-3(2), Art. 30-5-3(3), Art. 35-3-21(2), Art. 35-3-21(3), Art. 48(2), Art. 9(1), Art. 10(1), Art. 46(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Prepaid installment sales and specified prepaid transactions need the Minister's licence (許可); comprehensive credit, individual credit, and making credit card number handling contracts (クレジットカード番号等取扱契約) with stores need registration (登録) with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the registration for individual credit lapses unless renewed every three years. Only corporations qualify for any of them, and cooperatives set up under a special Act, public servants' bodies and labor unions need no registration for comprehensive or individual credit. Running such a business without the licence or registration it needs, or letting another run individual credit under one's name, is punishable by up to three years' imprisonment (拘禁刑), a fine of up to 3 million yen, or both.(Art. 11(1), Art. 35-3-61(1), Art. 31(1), Art. 35-3-23(1), Art. 35-3-60(1)(iv), Art. 35-3-60(2)(iv), Art. 35-17-2(1), Art. 35-3-27(1), Art. 15(1)(i), Art. 33-2(1)(i), Art. 35-3-26(1)(i), Art. 35-17-5(1)(i), Art. 35-3-30(1), Art. 49(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The Minister must refuse a registration to an applicant that falls under the grounds the Act lists — among them a fine under this Act (or, for a credit purchase intermediary, under the Money Lending Business Act (貸金業法)) that ended less than five years ago, an officer whose imprisonment (拘禁刑) or heavier sentence ended less than five years ago or who is, or was in the last five years, an organized crime group member (暴力団員), control by such members, and a lack of the systems a Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Order requires — and must first give notice and hold a public hearing of opinions (意見の聴取). On the organized-crime grounds the Minister hears the Director-General of the National Police Agency (警察庁長官).(Art. 33-2(1), Art. 35-3-26(1), Art. 35-17-5(1), Art. 42(1), Art. 39-2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where a credit purchase intermediary breaks its duties to check ability to pay and keep the records, to check the seller's conduct, to look after customers' information and complaints, or to report to and use the designated credit bureau properly, or a card issuer or other business handling credit card numbers — other than a seller or service provider that takes card payments — falls short of the standards for protecting them, the Minister may order it to improve its business or change its methods as far as needed. Breaking such an order is punishable by a fine of up to 1 million yen.(Art. 30-5-3(1), Art. 35-3-21(1), Art. 35-17(1), Art. 35-16(1), Art. 51-6(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The Minister must revoke a registration where the business comes to fall under grounds such as a fine under this Act or the Money Lending Business Act within the past five years, a disqualified officer or organized-crime control, or got it by fraud, and may revoke it or order all or part of the business suspended for up to one year where it breaks an order, its net assets fall short of what the Act requires, or it fails to file changes or files them falsely; a suspension order is made only after a hearing (聴聞), held in public, and revocations and suspensions are published. Representatives and staff who break a suspension order, or, for a prepaid business, an order to stop making contracts, are punishable by up to two years' imprisonment (拘禁刑), a fine of up to 3 million yen, or both.(Art. 34-2(1), Art. 34-2(2), Art. 35-3-32(1), Art. 35-3-32(2), Art. 43(1), Art. 43(2), Art. 34-4(1), Art. 35-3-35(1), Art. 51(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry may require reports, books and documents from the credit purchase intermediaries, and send officials into the offices of the licensed and registered businesses, designated credit bureaus and other bodies the Act lists to inspect books and records — for credit card numbers, into any business that handles them or its contractors, and, where especially needed, into the sellers and others closely tied to an individual credit company, over its checks on their conduct; the competent ministers may require reports from installment sellers, and the Prime Minister has similar powers where needed to give an opinion on an order. These powers are not for criminal investigation. Not reporting, reporting falsely, or refusing or obstructing an inspection is punishable by a fine of up to 500,000 yen.(Art. 40(1), Art. 40(3), Art. 40(4), Art. 40(7), Art. 40(10), Art. 41(1), Art. 41(2), Art. 41(3), Art. 41(5), Art. 41(8), Art. 53(1)(vii), Art. 53(1)(viii), Art. 53(1)(ix), Art. 53(1)(x)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A business handling credit card numbers, its contractor, or their officers or staff, current or former, who pass on or misuse a card number learned at work to gain wrongfully for themselves or another — and anyone who gets card numbers by deceit, by copying another's records without consent or by unauthorized access (不正アクセス行為), or who provides or receives them for payment without a legitimate reason, or keeps them in order to sell them — is punishable by up to three years' imprisonment (拘禁刑) or a fine of up to 500,000 yen. Taking over cards, or taking cards in connection with lending money, as a business (業として) is forbidden to anyone (何人も) and punishable by up to one year's imprisonment or a fine of up to 1 million yen.(Art. 49-2(1), Art. 49-2(2), Art. 49-2(3), Art. 37(1), Art. 51-3(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Leaking or misusing a designated credit bureau's secrets, by its officers or staff, current or former, and asking for, using or passing on its credit information other than to check ability to pay, or using it after leaving the business that received it, are punishable by up to two years' imprisonment (拘禁刑), a fine of up to 3 million yen, or both, as is knowingly receiving information so passed on. Failing to show terms, give documents or information, or keep the check records the Act requires is punishable by a fine of up to 500,000 yen, as is, for a prepaid business's staff, starting before the deposit is lodged and reported or contracting past the 50-day bar; and where staff commit an offence under Article 49 or Articles 50 to 53-3 in the business of a company or other employer, it is fined as well.(Art. 35-3-39(1), Art. 35-3-59(1), Art. 35-3-59(2), Art. 50(1), Art. 53(1)(i), Art. 53(1)(ii), Art. 53(1)(iii), Art. 53(1)(iv), Art. 53(1)(v), Art. 52(1)(i), Art. 52(1)(ii), Art. 54(1)) (the provisions it rests on)