# 民法 / Civil Code — 第百六十三条 (Article 163)

- Law: 民法 (Civil Code), 明治二十九年法律第八十九号
- English title "Civil Code": Ministry of Justice translation
- Kind: Act — the distinction between 法律 (Act), 政令 (Cabinet Order), 省令 (Ministerial Order) and 条例 (local ordinance) decides who may issue it and what it may say.
- Provision: 第百六十三条 (Article 163)（所有権以外の財産権の取得時効） — address `art-163`
- Text in force since: 2026-06-24
- URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-code/art-163
- Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-163
- Every provision below carries its address and both URLs on the line under it.
- Japanese text: e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁). English: as marked on each line below.

Only the Japanese as published by the government has legal effect; the text
below is a copy of it. Every English rendering below is a translation and
says which kind: the Ministry of Justice's translation, or this
site's machine translation, whose model and date the Sources list names.
They are never merged and never substituted for one another.

---

### 第百六十三条（所有権以外の財産権の取得時効） — (Acquisitive Prescription of Property Rights Other Than Ownership)
<sup>caption: Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>
<sup>art-163 · https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-code/art-163 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-163</sup>

    **第一項**  所有権以外の財産権を、自己のためにする意思をもって、平穏に、かつ、公然と行使する者は、前条の区別に従い二十年又は十年を経過した後、その権利を取得する。
    <sup>art-163/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-code/art-163/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-163/par-1</sup>
    A person that exercises a property right other than ownership peacefully and openly with the intention to do so on the person's own behalf acquires that right after the passage of 20 years or 10 years, according to the distinction provided for in the preceding Article.
    <sup>Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>

---

## Cites
- art-163/par-1: 前条 → 民法 第百六十二条 (Article 162), art-162 — https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-code/art-162 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-162

## Cited by

1 provision cites this one. No official source publishes this direction.

- 民法 第百六十五条第一項 — https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-code/art-165/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-165/par-1

---

## Sources

- e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁) — 民法 — the text in force from 2026-06-24 (https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/129AC0000000089/20260624_508AC0000000045), retrieved 2026-10-11
- Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — Civil Code — Ministry of Justice translation (part 1 of 2) (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/4848/tb), retrieved 2026-10-11
- This site's parser, version 190 — 民法 — structure, counts, cross-references and defined terms, computed 2026-10-11
