①Registration affairs are administered by the Legal Affairs Bureau or District Legal Affairs Bureau or the branch bureau thereof or the branch office of any of those bureaus (hereinafter simply referred to as the "registry office") which has jurisdiction over the location of the real property in question.

②Where real property extends over the jurisdictional districts of two or more registry offices, the Minister of Justice or the Director of the Legal Affairs Bureau or District Legal Affairs Bureau designates the registry office that should take charge of administering the registration affairs relating to the real property, as provided for by Ministry of Justice Order.

③In the case prescribed in the preceding paragraph, an application for a registration may be filed with any one of those two or more registry offices, until one of them is designated under the same paragraph.

The Minister of Justice may delegate affairs that are subject to the jurisdiction of one registry office to another registry office.

In the event that a registry office is obliged to suspend its affairs for some reason, the Minister of Justice may specify a period and order the suspension of the affairs of the registry office.

The affairs of a registry office are handled by a registrar (meaning a person appointed by the Director of the Legal Affairs Bureau or District Legal Affairs Bureau from among officials of the Ministry of Justice who work at the registry office; the same applies hereinafter).

If a registrar or a registrar's spouse or relative within the fourth degree of kinship (including a person who was a registrar's spouse or relative within the fourth degree of kinship; hereinafter the same applies in this Article) is the applicant for a registration, the registrar may not make the registration. The same applies when a registrar or a registrar's spouse or relative within the fourth degree of kinship files an application for a registration as a representative of the applicants.