# 民法 / Civil Code — 第百八十五条 (Article 185)

- 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: 第百八十五条 (Article 185)（占有の性質の変更） — address `art-185`
- Text in force since: 2026-06-24
- URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/ja/civil-code/art-185
- Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-185
- 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.

---

### 第百八十五条（占有の性質の変更） — (Change in Nature of Possession)
<sup>caption: Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>
<sup>art-185 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/civil-code/art-185 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-185</sup>

    **第一項**  権原の性質上占有者に所有の意思がないものとされる場合には、その占有者が、自己に占有をさせた者に対して所有の意思があることを表示し、又は新たな権原により更に所有の意思をもって占有を始めるのでなければ、占有の性質は、変わらない。
    <sup>art-185/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/civil-code/art-185/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-185/par-1</sup>
    If it is assumed, due to the nature of the title, that a possessor does not have the intention to own, the nature of the possessor's possession does not change unless that possessor manifests the intention to own to the person that put the thing under that person's possession, or commences possession under a new title with an intention to own from that time.
    <sup>Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>

---

## 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