# 民法 / Civil Code — 第八百十七条の四 (Article 817-4)

- 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: 第八百十七条の四 (Article 817-4)（養親となる者の年齢） — address `art-817-4`
- Text in force since: 2026-06-24
- URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/ja/civil-code/art-817-4
- Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-817-4
- 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.

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### 第八百十七条の四（養親となる者の年齢） — (Age of Persons Becoming Adoptive Parents)
<sup>caption: Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>
<sup>art-817-4 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/civil-code/art-817-4 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-817-4</sup>

      **第一項**  二十五歳に達しない者は、養親となることができない。ただし、養親となる夫婦の一方が二十五歳に達していない場合においても、その者が二十歳に達しているときは、この限りでない。
      <sup>art-817-4/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/civil-code/art-817-4/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-817-4/par-1</sup>
      A person who has not attained 25 years of age may not become an adoptive parent; provided, however, that even if, in a married couple becoming adoptive parents, one of the parties to the marriage has not attained 25 years of age, so long as that party has attained 20 years of age, this does not apply.
      <sup>Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>

## Cited by

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

- 民法 第八百十七条の二第一項（特別養子縁組の成立） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/civil-code/art-817-2/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-817-2/par-1

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## 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