However, when negotiations were started beween Japan and the allied western powers, the fact that Japan lacked Minpoten became one reason to justify exterritoriality of the western powers, so that in Japan from the end of the Edo period to the early Meiji period, the preparation of Minpoten was an urgent matter as one of political tasks to revise unequal treaties.
だが、欧米列強との交渉が始まると、日本に民法典が無いことが列強による治外法権を正当化させる理由の一つに挙げられて、幕末から明治初期の日本において、不平等条約条約改正という政治的課題の一つとして民法典の整備が急務とされていた。