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Can In-App Purchases by Minors Be Reversed? Japan's Minor Contract Rescission Right and the Reality of Gaming Disputes

By Leon MoriguchiPublished May 15, 2026Updated May 18, 20264 min read日本語版あり
Audience
Parents of school-age children and adolescents

TL;DR

  • ·Japan's Civil Code Article 5 gives minors the right to rescind contracts made without parental consent, but three real-world conditions — age misrepresentation, implied consent from inaction, and the "benefit received" treatment of spent gacha — frequently block actual refunds in practice
  • ·The 2022 lowering of the age of majority from 20 to 18 removed this protection from 18- and 19-year-olds; high school seniors and university freshmen are now legally adults for contract purposes, which most parents have not absorbed
  • ·Prevention is almost always more effective than dispute resolution: removing payment credentials from platforms at the point of handing over a device, and configuring purchase approval settings on iOS and Android, are the measures that matter most

Contents

  1. Lead
  2. Background: Article 5 of the Civil Code — The Minor's Right to Rescind
  3. Three Conditions That Make Rescission Difficult in Practice
  4. 1. Age Misrepresentation
  5. 2. Implied Parental Consent
  6. 3. "Benefits Already Received" — The Problem of Spent Gacha Results
  7. Why Gacha Complicates Things Further
  8. Steps to Take if a Dispute Arises
  9. Practical Takeaways
  10. Summary
  11. References

Lead

Finding out that a child has been spending money on a game is not uncommon. Looking up "can we get a refund?" quickly leads to the Civil Code. The law looks complicated at first, but once the core mechanism is understood, both preventive measures and responses after the fact become much easier to organize. This article covers how Japan's minor contract rescission right works and the specific conditions under which it fails to produce an actual refund.


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