# 民法 / Civil Code — 第九百八十一条 (Article 981) - 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: 第九百八十一条 (Article 981)（署名又は押印が不能の場合） — address `art-981` - Text in force since: 2026-06-24 - URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-code/art-981 - Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-981 - 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. --- ### 第九百八十一条（署名又は押印が不能の場合） — (If It Is Not Possible to Sign or Affix a Seal) caption: Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System art-981 · https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-code/art-981 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-981 **第一項** 第九百七十七条から第九百七十九条までの場合において、署名又は印を押すことのできない者があるときは、立会人又は証人は、その事由を付記しなければならない。 art-981/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-code/art-981/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-981/par-1 In a case as referred to in one of Article 977 through Article 979, if there is a person who is unable to sign or affix a seal, a person present or a witness must make a supplementary note of the reason for this. Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System --- ## Cites - art-981/par-1: 第九百七十七条から第九百七十九条まで → 民法 第九百七十七条 (Article 977), art-977 — https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-code/art-977 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-977 - art-981/par-1: 第九百七十七条から第九百七十九条まで → 民法 第九百七十八条 (Article 978), art-978 — https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-code/art-978 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-978 - art-981/par-1: 第九百七十七条から第九百七十九条まで → 民法 第九百七十九条 (Article 979), art-979 — https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-code/art-979 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-979 ## Cited by 2 provisions cite this one. No official source publishes this direction. - 民法 第九百八十二条第一項（普通の方式による遺言の規定の準用） — https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-code/art-982/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-982/par-1 - 民法 第九百八十三条第一項（特別の方式による遺言の効力） — https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-code/art-983/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-983/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 2 of 2) (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/4275/tb), 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