Chapter III Costs and Rewards
第三章 費用及び報労金
第二十七条(費用の負担)
The expenses required for the submission, delivery and custody of property (excluding expenses required by a person who possessed another person's thing by mistake) are borne by the person who lost the property and receives its return, or by a person who acquires ownership of the property under the provisions of Article 240 of the Civil Code (including the case where it applies mutatis mutandis under Article 3; the same applies hereinafter) or Article 241 of the Civil Code, or under the provisions of Article 32, paragraph (1), and takes it over.
The provisions of Articles 295 through 302 of the Civil Code apply to the expenses referred to in the preceding paragraph.
前項の費用については、民法第二百九十五条から第三百二条までの規定を適用する。
第二十八条(報労金)
A person who lost property (excluding a thing of another person possessed by mistake) and receives its return must pay the finder a reward in an amount equivalent to 5 percent or more and 20 percent or less of the value of that property (for property sold under Article 9, paragraph (1) or (2) or Article 20, paragraph (1) or (2), the amount of the proceeds of that sale).
If there is a facility occupant that received delivery of the property, the person who lost the property referred to in the preceding paragraph must, notwithstanding that paragraph, pay each of the finder and that facility occupant a reward in an amount equal to one half of the amount prescribed in that paragraph.
The national government, local governments, incorporated administrative agencies (meaning incorporated administrative agencies prescribed in Article 2, paragraph (1) of the Act on General Rules for Incorporated Administrative Agencies (Act No. 103 of 1999)), local incorporated administrative agencies (meaning local incorporated administrative agencies prescribed in Article 2, paragraph (1) of the Local Independent Administrative Agency Act (Act No. 118 of 2003)) and other public juridical persons may not claim the rewards referred to in the preceding two paragraphs.
国、地方公共団体、独立行政法人(独立行政法人通則法(平成十一年法律第百三号)第二条第一項に規定する独立行政法人をいう。)、地方独立行政法人(地方独立行政法人法(平成十五年法律第百十八号)第二条第一項に規定する地方独立行政法人をいう。)その他の公法人は、前二項の報労金を請求することができない。
Article 29Time Limits on Claims for Expenses and Rewards
第二十九条(費用及び報労金の請求権の期間の制限)
The expenses referred to in Article 27, paragraph (1) and the reward referred to in paragraph (1) or (2) of the preceding Article may not be claimed once one month has elapsed after the property was returned to the person who lost it.
Article 30Exemption of Finders, etc. from the Obligation to Reimburse Expenses
第三十条(拾得者等の費用償還義務の免除)
A finder (including another person prescribed in the proviso to Article 241 of the Civil Code) may, by declaring in advance to the chief of a police station (or, for a finder prescribed in Article 4, paragraph (2), the facility occupant) that the finder waives all rights concerning the property, be released from the obligation to reimburse the expenses referred to in Article 27, paragraph (1).
A person who lost property may, by waiving the rights the person holds in the property, be released from the obligation to reimburse the expenses referred to in Article 27, paragraph (1) and the obligation to pay the reward referred to in Article 28, paragraph (1) or (2).
Article 32Acquisition of Ownership by Finders upon Waiver of Rights by Persons Who Lost, etc.
第三十二条(遺失者の権利放棄による拾得者の所有権取得等)
When all persons who lost the property have waived the rights they hold in the property, the finder acquires ownership of that property; provided, however, that a buried thing prescribed in the proviso to Article 241 of the Civil Code is governed by the same rules as the proviso to that Article.
A person who acquires ownership of property under the provisions of the preceding paragraph may waive the right so acquired and thereby be released from the obligation to reimburse the expenses referred to in Article 27, paragraph (1).
Article 33Acquisition of Rights by Facility Occupants, etc.
第三十三条(施設占有者の権利取得等)
When a finder prescribed in Article 4, paragraph (2) has, under Article 30 or paragraph (2) of the preceding Article, waived rights in the property that the finder delivered, or has lost rights in it under the following Article by falling under item (iii) of that Article, the facility occupant who received the delivery is deemed to be the finder, and the provisions of Article 240 of the Civil Code, Article 30, and the main clause of paragraph (1) and paragraph (2) of the preceding Article apply. In this case, the phrase "chief of a police station (or, for a finder prescribed in Article 4, paragraph (2), the facility occupant)" in Article 30 is deemed to be replaced with "chief of a police station".
Article 34Loss of the Right to Claim Expenses, etc.
第三十四条(費用請求権等の喪失)
A person falling under any of the following items loses, with respect to the property of which the person made a finding or that the person received by delivery, the right to claim the expenses referred to in Article 27, paragraph (1) and the reward referred to in Article 28, paragraph (1) or (2), and the right to acquire ownership under the provisions of Article 240 or 241 of the Civil Code or the provisions of Article 32, paragraph (1):
a finder who has not made the submission under Article 4, paragraph (1) within one week from the day of the finding (excluding a finder prescribed in paragraph (2) of that Article and a facility occupant who made the finding personally);
a finder prescribed in Article 4, paragraph (2) who has not made the delivery within 24 hours from the time of the finding;
a facility occupant (excluding a special-case facility occupant) who has not made the submission under Article 4, paragraph (1) or Article 13, paragraph (1) within one week from the day on which the facility occupant received the delivery or made the finding personally;
a special-case facility occupant who has not made the submission under Article 4, paragraph (1) or Article 13, paragraph (1) within two weeks (or, for property prescribed in the proviso to Article 4, paragraph (1) and the proviso to Article 13, paragraph (1) and high-value property specified by the Cabinet Order referred to in the first sentence of Article 17, within one week) from the day on which the special-case facility occupant received the delivery or made the finding personally (excluding a case where the special-case facility occupant may omit the submission under the first sentence of Article 17).