Commercial Transactions

Interest-free loans are allowed under the Japanese Civil Code so parties are free to contract into zero-interest loan agreements as they wish.  However, there are limits on how much interest a lender can charge on a loan.  The Interest Rate Restriction Law provides that the maximum allowed interest rate is 15% annually for amounts of 1 million yen or more.

A Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU as it is commonly called, is a document signed between two or more parties that is intended to memorialize their shared agreement to pursue a certain goal.  MOU vary in formality and can be very similar to formal contracts or simply a casual written summary of an oral agreement.

A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is an agreement signed between two or more parties to prevent the disclosure of confidential information.  It also can be called a confidentiality agreement (CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement (PIA) or secrecy agreement (SA).