Deposit of Instrument of Accession to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods

July 2, 2008

On July 1 (Tue) , the Government of Japan deposited the instrument of accession to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG, The Vienna Sales Convention) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The Convention will enter into force in respect of Japan on August 1, 2009.
The Convention provides unified rules on contracts for the international sale of goods. It will apply to contracts of sale of goods mainly between parties whose places of business are different contracting states. It provides rules on the formation of contracts and the rights and obligations of the parties to the contract.
It is expected that the accession to the Convention will remove uncertainty regarding the law applicable to trade between Japanese parties and those of other contracting states, and will facilitate international trade involving Japanese parties.
The Convention has 70 contracting states including most of Japan’s major trading partners. Japan will be the 71st contracting state.

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