LE PROBLÈME D’ÉQUIVALENCE DE TERMINOLOGIE SUR « LES BIENS » ET « LE PATRIMOINE » DANS LE CODE CIVIL FRANÇAIS ET JAPONAIS

In the Meiji era, Japan was attempting to modernize and Europeanize through legal reforms. At that time in Japan, Napoleonic Code was regarded as the best civil code and was translated into Japanese by Mitsukuri Rinsho. How-ever, bcause of the lack of the dictionary and any material concerning the law, Mitsukuri was forced to coin the new words during the translation. At that time, the French term “biens” was translated in Japanese as “財産 zaisan” and the term “patrimoine” was translated as “資産 shisan” by箕作麒麟Mitsukuri Rinsho et Gustave Emile Boissonade de Fontarabie. Today, “財産 zaisan” is accepted as the equivalent for “biens”, however the translation of term “patri-moine” is very varied according to the translators: 家産 kasan, 資産 shisan, 財産体zaisantai, 財物zaibutsu. In this article, we will first observe the histori-cal perspective of the Japanese Civil Code, then the concept of these two French terms to find the most appropriate translation in Japanese from linguis-tic point of view.