Registration is divided into four categories: first, the system of registration of immovables (real estate) which clarifies the actual condition of the property, including ownership and the rights involved; second, the system of commercial and corporate registration designed to register certain matters to clarify the existence of corporate bodies and to be made available for public access; third, the system of movable assignment registration and claim assignment registration under which a corporate body can easily and promptly meet the requirements to counter a third party to an assignment of movables or claims; and fourth, the system of adult guardianship registration under the revised Civil Code (Law No. 149 of 1999) designed to make public the guardian, curator or assistant of the adult concerned.

Since the beginning of the Meiji era, the work of registration has been maintained as an important foundation for the country to support the activities of enterprises or their financing. Real estate has always played a role as the base for economic activities in Japan from olden times, and moreover, owing to the remarkable growth of the economy and the rapid pace of the development of public works in recent years including national land development, national land surveys, land improvement, land and town planning, housing construction projects and residential land formation programs, the increase in demand for registration of real estate has become greater than ever. In order to cope with such an increase in the volume of registration work, the Ministry has taken various measures, such as increasing the number of personnel who specialize in this work, rationalizing and mechanizing registration work and reallocating office buildings. Further, in order to drastically modernize the system, the registration offices are now working hard on the computerization of registration work.

Also, in order to comply with the needs of citizens, services are provided which, upon request, give information on matters registered by the offices to those who require such information, via the Internet. Other systems, such as the electronic certification system based on the commercial registry and online application systems of registration have also been introduced to deal with the needs of an IT society. The online application systems of registration of real estate, companies, claim assignments and guardianship have already been implemented, and the number of offices available for them is increasing. Also, the offices are kept open during lunch hours, for the benefit of users.

Family registration is the system of registering and notarizing the family relationships of an individual from birth until death. A family register is made for every Japanese national and is the only public document to certify that he or she has Japanese nationality. Family registration work is handled by city, town or village offices, but the State (Director of the Legal Affairs Bureau or the District Legal Affairs Bureau) gives advice, suggestions or directions to ensure that the work of registration may be performed in a smooth, proper and uniform manner throughout the whole country.

The Law for Partial Amendment to the Family Registration Law which came into force on December 1, 1994 has enabled city, town or village offices designated by the Minister of Justice to deal with family registration work using computers and, as of December 31, 2006, a total of 1,296 cities, towns and villages have introduced computers to handle this work.

Nationality is the qualification of an individual to be a national of a particular country. The Ministry of Justice performs various functions related to Japanese nationality. For example, it handles work related to naturalization when a foreign national wishes to acquire Japanese nationality, acquisition of Japanese nationality through notification, renunciation of Japanese nationality, choice of one nationality by a person who has dual nationality, recognition of Japanese nationality, and consultation about nationality.

Deposit is a system designed to accomplish a certain legal objective by having a person entrust a sum of money or negotiable securities with a deposit office (legal affairs bureau or district legal affairs bureau) to guarantee the performance of his or her obligation and ultimately by having the other party who is entitled to that property acquire the money from the deposit office. Business related to deposits can be divided into four categories: deposits for performing obligation, for securing the costs of a lawsuit as ordered by a court or for the execution of civil matters, for ensuring business security or filing candidacy for election to a public office.

Any person who wishes to make a deposit can easily do so by presenting a deposit card (which enables them to make a large number of deposits at the same time). In addition , an online application system of deposits has also been implemented at all deposit offices.

Notarization is a system under which a notary, a State agent whose functions are to officially certify legal matters related to the life of a private person such as the conclusion of a contract, certifies matters as prescribed by law, by such means as preparing deeds. This system is designed to protect private rights but also to prevent disputes over civil matters from arising in the future. In this sense, it is a "preventive justice" system. In other words, this system has been designed to avoid future trouble or dispute over a contract by having a legal specialist (notary) participate in the preparation of the contract in advance. The Ministry of Justice performs work concerning the notary system and the Minister of Justice (through the Directors of Legal Affairs Bureaus and District Legal Affairs Bureaus) appoints the notaries public.

The functions of a notary public under the Notary Law are, upon the request of a party or client, (1) to prepare notarial deeds for legal acts or facts related to private rights, (2) to attest a private deed and (3) to attest the articles of incorporation of a kabushiki-kaisha (company limited) and, among the duties assigned to them by laws other than the Notary Law, a notary handles the preparation of wills, the work of affixing an enforcement sentence to a notarial deed, preparation of a protest to a bill or cheque and attaching a fixed date of preparation which has evidential value.

A notarial deed means a deed prepared by a notary regarding the facts related to rights and obligations in accordance with the Notary Law and other laws. A notarial deed is prepared upon request of the party or client and it has a strong probative value in civil suits, in regard to the contents of the deed. Not only that, in the case of a claim the object of which is the payment of a certain quantity of valuable instruments and of which the obligor expresses the will that he or she does not object to enforcement of the claim based on the deed, the validity of execution of the deed is recognized. The original of a notarial deed is kept in custody by the notary office lest it should be lost or falsified. As of April 2005, about 500 notaries are working in about 300 notary offices throughout the country.

Now based on the current notarization system, an electronic notarization system has been introduced and has been in use since January 2002, where electronic documents such as attestation of private documents, authorization of fixed dates, and the preservation and certification of electronic information are available. Further, since April of 2002, this has also been applicable to electronic articles of incorporation.

The electronic notarization system is handled by the notaries public designated by the Minister of Justice, of which there were 60 as of April 2005.