(1) For the purposes of this Agreement, unless the context
otherwise requires:
a) the term “Japan”, when used in a geographical sense, means
all the territory of Japan, including its territorial sea, in which
the laws relating to Japanese tax are in force, and all the area
beyond its territorial sea, including the seabed and subsoil
thereof, over which Japan has sovereign rights in accordance
with international law and in which the laws relating to Japan-
ese tax are in force;
b) the term “Federal Republic of Germany”, when used in a geo-
graphical sense, means the territory of the Federal Republic
of Germany as well as the area of the seabed, its subsoil and
the superjacent water column adjacent to the territorial sea,
insofar as the Federal Republic of Germany exercises sovereign
rights and jurisdiction in conformity with international law and
its national legislation for the purpose of exploring, exploiting,
conserving and managing the living and non-living natural
resources or for the production of energy from renewable
sources;
c) the terms “a Contracting State” and “the other Contracting
State” mean the Federal Republic of Germany or Japan, as
the context requires;
d) the term “person” includes an individual, a company and any
other body of persons;
e) the term “company” means any body corporate or any entity
that is treated as a body corporate for tax purposes;
f) the term “enterprise” applies to the carrying on of any busi-
ness;
g) the term “business” includes the performance of professional
services and of other activities of an independent character;
h) the terms “enterprise of a Contracting State” and “enterprise
of the other Contracting State” mean respectively an enter-
prise carried on by a resident of a Contracting State and an
enterprise carried on by a resident of the other Contracting
State;
i)
the term “international traffic” means any transport by a ship
or aircraft operated by an enterprise of a Contracting State,
except when the ship or aircraft is operated solely between
places in the other Contracting State;
j)
the term “national” means:
i)
in the case of Japan, any individual possessing the nation-
ality of Japan and any legal person, partnership or asso-
ciation deriving its status as such from the laws in force
in Japan; and
ii) in the case of the Federal Republic of Germany, any Ger-
man within the meaning of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz)
for the Federal Republic of Germany and any legal per-
son, partnership or association deriving its status as such
from the laws in force in the Federal Republic of Germany;
k) the term “competent authority” means:
i)
in the case of Japan, the Minister of Finance or his autho-
rised representative; and
ii) in the case of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Federal
Ministry of Finance or the agency to which it has delegated
its powers.
(2) As regards the application of this Agreement at any time
by a Contracting State, any term not defined therein shall, unless
the context otherwise requires, have the meaning that it has at
that time under the laws of that Contracting State for the purposes
of the taxes to which the Agreement applies, any meaning under
the applicable tax laws of that Contracting State prevailing over
a meaning given to the term under other laws of that Contracting
State.
de-japan-2016-base | BGBl. 2016 II S. 956 | Signed: 2015-12-17 | Gazette publication: 2016-07-25
Source form
official-publication PDF with native text layer; reader is a machine transcription
Source scope
original implementing law, bilingual base treaty and accompanying protocol; not a current consolidated text
Retrieved
2026-09-30
Text and language scope
This source supplies German and English versions. The signing clause also identifies Japanese as authentic; that third version is NOT present in this reader. Unreviewed coordinate-based machine transcription of this original source edition only. Printed line breaks, hyphens and uncertain token spacing are retained, not silently corrected. Treaty preamble, closing formula, protocol and shared signatures are separate retained assets, not part of the last article. Full supplements: /review/de-japan-2016-base/. PDF page links identify pages, not verified paragraph correspondence.
Review status
Pending human wording, completeness, source-authority, currentness, alignment and rendering review. No legal review performed.
Currentness
Original source edition; not a verified current-law consolidation. Unknown. No current-law consolidation, effective-period determination, MLI application, or complete amendment-chain verification has been performed. Original publication year is not a current applicability date. Bounded agent triage, no qualified wording/alignment/legal review. No exhaustive verification of all later 2026 developments. Matching digest proves retained source identity, not legal force.
Protocols and later instruments
The protocol printed with this agreement is separately preserved in source supplements; it has not been merged into treaty articles. Subsequent protocols, amendments, MLI effects, replacements and suspensions are unresolved. This is not a consolidated current-law instrument. Source-triage warnings: Bounded agent triage, no qualified wording/alignment/legal review. No exhaustive verification of all later 2026 developments. Matching digest proves retained source identity, not legal force. Known related/later instruments NOT included in this source (agent triage, not exhaustive): BEPS-MLI; general application from: 2026-01-01
Text language and status
en · authentic-language-transcription · machine-transcription
BGBl. 2016 II S. 956 | de-japan-2016-base | de-japan-2016-base | BGBl. 2016 II S. 956 | Signed: 2015-12-17 | Gazette publication: 2016-07-25 | Article 3 | en | Pending human wording, completeness, source-authority, currentness, alignment and rendering review. No legal review performed. | /library/treaties/de-japan-2016-base/en/articles/article-3/
Source, edition and limits
Source edition
de-japan-2016-base | BGBl. 2016 II S. 956 | Signed: 2015-12-17 | Gazette publication: 2016-07-25
Source form
official-publication PDF with native text layer; reader is a machine transcription
Source scope
original implementing law, bilingual base treaty and accompanying protocol; not a current consolidated text
Retrieved
2026-09-30
Text and language scope
This source supplies German and English versions. The signing clause also identifies Japanese as authentic; that third version is NOT present in this reader. Unreviewed coordinate-based machine transcription of this original source edition only. Printed line breaks, hyphens and uncertain token spacing are retained, not silently corrected. Treaty preamble, closing formula, protocol and shared signatures are separate retained assets, not part of the last article. Full supplements: /review/de-japan-2016-base/. PDF page links identify pages, not verified paragraph correspondence.
Review status
Pending human wording, completeness, source-authority, currentness, alignment and rendering review. No legal review performed.
Currentness
Original source edition; not a verified current-law consolidation. Unknown. No current-law consolidation, effective-period determination, MLI application, or complete amendment-chain verification has been performed. Original publication year is not a current applicability date. Bounded agent triage, no qualified wording/alignment/legal review. No exhaustive verification of all later 2026 developments. Matching digest proves retained source identity, not legal force.
Protocols and later instruments
The protocol printed with this agreement is separately preserved in source supplements; it has not been merged into treaty articles. Subsequent protocols, amendments, MLI effects, replacements and suspensions are unresolved. This is not a consolidated current-law instrument. Source-triage warnings: Bounded agent triage, no qualified wording/alignment/legal review. No exhaustive verification of all later 2026 developments. Matching digest proves retained source identity, not legal force. Known related/later instruments NOT included in this source (agent triage, not exhaustive): BEPS-MLI; general application from: 2026-01-01
Text language and status
en · authentic-language-transcription · machine-transcription