Japan Diet OKs bill to allow sales of unclaimed land

May 17, 2019

Tokyo--The Diet, Japan's parliament, enacted on Friday a bill to allow the sales of land plots whose owners are unknown under certain conditions.

The House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, unanimously approved the bill at a plenary meeting. The bill cleared the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, earlier this month.

The legislation is expected to take effect within this year.

According to the Justice Ministry, when the now-defunct cadaster, which recorded details of land plots across the country, was integrated into the real estate registry, starting from 1960, the names and addresses of some land owners were not correctly transferred.

Laborious work to find owners of unclaimed land plots has been an obstacle to local governments' development activities.

To help reduce the number of such plots, the new legislation will enable lawyers and judicial scriveners designated as administrators by courts to sell off such land.

Such administrators will deposit proceeds from the sales of unclaimed land at legal affairs bureaus and hand them over to the owners if they come forward.

The law will also strengthen the authority of legal affairs bureau registrars, allowing them to conduct on-site surveys of unclaimed land lots and surrounding areas. In addition, part-time positions to conduct such surveys with registrars will be created. Jiji Press