登記済証

The certificate the registry stamped and returned to a new owner before 登記識別情報 replaced it, and what people mean when they say 権利証 (kenrisho, 'the title deed'). It did not stop being usable: where an old deed is submitted on a later application, the law deems 登記識別情報 to have been provided[1]. It was never proof of ownership in its own right either: it evidences only that its holder was the party the registry dealt with. Nor is the register itself conclusive of who owns a property, since a transfer takes effect between the parties on their agreement alone[2] and it is registration that makes the change assertable against third parties[2]. That gap is how an heir can genuinely own a property whose registration still names the deceased. An owner who registered decades ago may still hold one, though in some transitional cases none was issued at all. So a seller who says the deed was lost may be telling the truth, may never have been issued one, or may be using the excuse because they never held it, which is why a missing deed calls for the registry's fallback checks rather than proving fraud on its own.