# 民法 / Civil Code — 第八百三十八条 (Article 838)

- 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: 第八百三十八条 (Article 838) — address `art-838`
- Text in force since: 2026-06-24
- URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/ja/civil-code/art-838
- Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-838
- 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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### 第八百三十八条
<sup>art-838 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/civil-code/art-838 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-838</sup>

    **第一項**  後見は、次に掲げる場合に開始する。
    <sup>art-838/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/civil-code/art-838/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-838/par-1</sup>
    Guardianship commences if:
    <sup>Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>

      **一**  未成年者に対して親権を行う者がないとき、又は親権を行う者が管理権を有しないとき。
      <sup>art-838/par-1/item-1 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/civil-code/art-838/par-1/item-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-838/par-1/item-1</sup>
      there is no person exercising parental authority over a minor, or the person exercising parental authority does not have the right to manage the minor's property;
      <sup>Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>

      **二**  後見開始の審判があったとき。
      <sup>art-838/par-1/item-2 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/civil-code/art-838/par-1/item-2 · https://japanlaw.org/l/129AC0000000089/art-838/par-1/item-2</sup>
      there has been a decision to establish a guardianship.
      <sup>Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>

## Cited by

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

- 戸籍法 第八十一条第一項 — https://japanlaw.org/ja/family-register-act/art-81/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/322AC0000000224/art-81/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