Article 1 The purpose of this Act is to promote reasonable and practical resolutions with regard to civil disputes based on mutual concession of the parties.

Article 2 When a civil dispute arises, a party may file a petition to the court for conciliation.

Article 3 Except as otherwise provided, conciliation cases shall belong to the Summary Court which has jurisdiction over the opposite party's domicile or residence, or location of the opposite party's head office or branch office or else to the Summary Court or District Court agreed by the parties.

Article 4 In cases where a case received by a court does not fall under its jurisdiction, the court shall transfer the case to a district court, a family court or a summary court with proper jurisdiction; provided, however, when particularly necessary, notwithstanding the provisions of territorial jurisdiction, the court may transfer all or part of the case to other court with jurisdiction, or deal with the case by itself.

Article 5 The court shall establish a conciliation committee; provided, however, that the judge may, when the court finds it appropriate, conciliate the case.

Article 6 The conciliation committee shall be organized by one conciliation committee chief and two or more civil conciliators.

Article 7 The District Court shall designate a conciliation committee chief from judges.

Article 8 Civil conciliators shall participate in conciliation at the committee and, when ordered by the court, Civil conciliators shall, in other conciliation cases, state their opinions based on their specialized knowledge and experience, hear opinions of relevant persons for solving a commissioned dispute, and carry out the necessary work determined by the Supreme Court to deal with a conciliation case.

Article 9 Civil conciliators shall be paid an allowance pursuant to the provision specified separately by an act and also be paid travel expenses, daily allowances and accommodations as determined by the Supreme Court.

Article 10 Deleted

Article 11 A person with an interest in the result of the conciliation may participate in the conciliation proceedings with permission of the conciliation committee.

Article 12 When particularly necessary, upon a petition by the party, the conciliation committee may prohibit, as pre-conciliation measures, the other party or relevant persons from changing the existing state or disposing objects, or order them to take measures necessary to eliminate the act that will make it impossible or extremely difficult to realize the conciliated matters.

Article 13 The conciliation committee may terminate the case when it finds the nature of the case inappropriate for conciliation or finds that the party frivolously files a petition for improper purposes.

Article 14 In the case where the conciliation committee considers that there is no prospect of the agreement between the parties or finds the agreement inappropriate, unless the court renders the rulings prescribed in Article 17, the committee may terminate the case as the failure of conciliation.

Article 15 The provisions of Article 11 through the preceding article shall apply mutatis mutandis to the case where the judge conciliates the case.

Article 16 When the agreement is effected between the parties in conciliation and it is recorded in the conciliation records, the conciliation is deemed to have been achieved and its records shall have the same effect as a settlement in court.

Article 17 In the case where the court considers that it is impossible to achieve conciliation by the conciliation committee and when the court finds it appropriate, the court may take the decision necessary for resolution of the case after hearing the opinion of said Civil conciliators, seeking equity for the parties, and taking all the circumstances into consideration, so far as the decision is not against the purpose of petition of the parties. The court may order payment of money, delivery of things, and any other property benefits on this decision.

Article 18 The parties or interested persons may file an objection against the ruling set forth in the preceding article. The period for filing an objection is two weeks after the parties receiving the notice of the ruling.

Article 19 Where the case is closed pursuant to the provision of Article 14 (including the cases where it is applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Article 15) or the ruling of the court shall cease to be effective pursuant to the provision of Paragraph 2 of the preceding article, and when the applicant files a lawsuit with the court within two weeks from the date receiving the notice of failure, the lawsuit shall be deemed to be filed at the time of the application for conciliation.

Article 20 The court in charge of the case may refer the case to conciliation ex officio if the court considers it appropriate to do so, and make the court with jurisdiction deal with the case or deal with the case by itself; provided, however, that this shall not apply to the case after the arrangement of the issues and evidence of the case being completed, unless there is agreement of the parties.

Article 21 The parties may immediately appeal against a ruling of a conciliation procedure, pursuant to the provisions of the Rules of the Supreme Court. The period of appeal shall be two weeks.

Article 22 Except as otherwise provided, provisions of PartⅠof the Non-Contentious Cases Procedures Act (Act No.14 of 1898) shall apply mutatis mutandis to conciliation to the extent that application is not inconsistent with the nature of the conciliation; provided, however, that this shall not apply to Article 15 of the same Act.

Article 23 Besides the provisions of this Act, the necessary matters concerning conciliation shall be determined by the Supreme Court.

Article 23-2 The Supreme Court shall appoint a civil conciliation officer from attorneys who has been in practice for more than five years.

Article 23-3 A civil conciliation officer shall handle conciliation cases upon receiving designation by the court.

Article 23-4 A civil conciliation officer shall be paid an allowance pursuant to the provision specified separately by an act and also be paid travel expenses, daily allowances and accommodations as determined by the Supreme Court.

Article 24 Conciliation cases concerning the dispute about lease or other utilization of a residential land and building shall belong to the Summary Court which has jurisdiction over the location of the disputed residential land or building or else to the District Court, agreed by the parties, which has jurisdiction over the location of the residential land or building.

Article 24-2 A person who intends to file a lawsuit concerning a case of a request for change of rent for land use or for land lease set forth in Article 11 of Land and House Lease Act (Act No.90 of 1991) or a request for change of rent for lease of building set forth in Article 32 of the same act shall first file a petition for conciliation.

Article 24-3 With regard to the conciliation case of request set forth in Paragraph 1 in the preceding article, in the case where the conciliation committee considers that there is no prospect of the agreement between the parties or finds the agreement inappropriate, the conciliation committee may, upon a petition by the party, provide appropriate conciliation clauses when there is an agreement in writing (limited to the agreement made after filing the petition for conciliation with regard to the said conciliation case) between the parties to the effect that they shall accept those clauses.

Article 25 Conciliation cases concerning the dispute about lease or other utilization of farmland or land, building and other agricultural assets for farm management (hereinafter referred to as "Farmland, etc.") shall be governed by this section, except as what is provided for in the preceding chapter.

Article 26 Conciliation cases set forth in the preceding article shall belong to the District Court which has jurisdiction over the location of the disputed Farmland, etc. or else to the Summary Court, agreed by the parties, which has jurisdiction over the location of the Farmland, etc.

Article 27 The tenant officer or the local tenant officer may attend a conciliation committee and state the opinions on the committee date or on a day other than the date.

Article 28 When a conciliation committee intends to conciliate the case, the conciliation committee shall hear the opinions of the tenant officer or the local tenant officer.

Article 29 The preceding two articles shall apply mutatis mutandis to the case where the judge conciliates the case.

Article 30 The provision of Article 28 shall apply mutatis mutandis where the court intends to transfer or deal with the case by itself pursuant to proviso of Article 4 Paragraph 1 or Paragraph 2 or intends to make decisions set forth in Article 17.

Article 31 The provision of Article 24-3 shall apply mutatis mutandis to a conciliation case concerning commercial disputes.

Article 32 Conciliation cases concerning the dispute about compensation for mine pollution prescribed in the Mining Act (Act No. 289 of 1950) shall belong to the District Court which has jurisdiction over the area where the damage occurred.

Article 33 The provisions of Article 24-3 and Article 27 - Article 30 shall apply mutatis mutandis to the conciliation cases set forth in the preceding article. In this case, "the tenant officer or the local tenant officer" in Article 27 and Article 28 shall be deemed to be replaced with "the Director-General of the Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry."

Article 33-2 In the case where the life or body of person is harmed by automobile, conciliation cases concerning the dispute for damages belong to the Court prescribed in Article 3 and the Summary Court which has jurisdiction over the address of the domicile or the residence of the person who demands compensation for damages.

Article 33-3 Conciliation cases concerning the dispute pertaining to the harm incurred as a result of the infringement of interests in daily life such as pollution, sunshine and air ventilation belong to the Court prescribed in Article 3 and the Summary Court that has jurisdiction over the area where damages occurred or damages are likely to occur.

Article 34 A relevant person who has been summoned by the court or the conciliation committee and fails to appear without justifiable grounds shall be punished by a non-penal fine of not more than fifty-thousand yen by the court.

Article 35 A party or an intervenor who fails to comply with the measures pursuant to the provision of Article 12 (including the cases where it is applied mutatis mutandis in Article 15) without justifiable grounds shall be punished by a non-penal fine of not more than one hundred-thousand yen by the court.

Article 36 A decision on the non-penal fines set forth in the preceding two articles shall be enforced by the order of the judge. This order shall have the same effect as that of an enforceable title of obligation.

Article 37 When a person who is or was a civil conciliator divulges the proceedings of deliberations, the opinions of the committee chief or civil conciliators, or the number of opinions constituting majority, without justifiable grounds, the person shall be punished by a fine of not more than three hundred thousand yen.

Article 38 When a person who is or was a civil conciliator divulges without justifiable grounds another person's personal secrets that the person has learned in the course of the duties, the person shall be punished by imprisonment with work for not more than a year or a fine not more than five hundred thousand yen.