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Sometimes unusual words have had to be employed to render the corresponding Japanese expressions, for instance the word “prestation,” which, however, is used to some extent by recent writers in English.

A most important difference between the English system and the system embodied in the new Japanese Code is that the latter does not recognize the distinction between real and personal property, which plays so important a part in the former. The rules relating to property are mostly stated in a general form, so as to apply to all kinds of property.

Furthermore the division of the English law into law and equity, which was the result of historical accidents, has no place in the Japanese Civil Code.

In the law of obligations the Japanese Code uses two words to express the meaning of the Latin word obligatio, namely 債權 “saiken,” obligation-right and 債務 “saimu,” obligation-duty. In this translation the single word “obligation” has been used to render both. In some cases, however, when it seemed necessary, obligations have been designated as existing “in favour of” or “against” persons. The English expressions “right of action” and “claim” cannot properly be used to translate the word “saiken,” as they have different meanings in English law.

The family law and the law of succession are mainly of native origin. But the original Japanese institutions retained in these parts of the Codes have been greatly modernized.—

In translating from the original Japanese text I have not made any use whatever of the English translation of the first three Books of the Civil Code, which was published in the year 1897, nearly two years later