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ARTICLE 3
General Definitions
(1) For the purposes of this Agreement, unless the context otherwise requires:
- (a) the term "Japan", when used in a geographical sense, means all the territory of Japan, including its territorial sea, in which the laws relating to Japanese tax are in force, and all the area beyond its territorial sea, including the seabed and subsoil thereof, over which Japan has sovereign rights in accordance with international law and in which the laws relating to Japanese tax are in force;
- (b) the term "Federal Republic of Germany", when used in a geographical sense, means the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany as well as the area of the seabed, its subsoil and the superjacent water column adjacent to the territorial sea, insofar as the Federal Republic of Germany exercises sovereign rights and jurisdiction in conformity with international law and its national legislation for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing the living and non-living natural resources or for the production of energy from renewable sources;
- (c) the terms "a Contracting State" and "the other Contracting State" mean Japan or the Federal Republic of Germany, as the context requires;
- (d) the term "person" includes an individual, a company and any other body of persons;
- (e) the term "company" means any body corporate or any entity that is treated as a body corporate for tax purposes;
- (f) the term "enterprise" applies to the carrying on of any business;
- (g) the term "business" includes the performance of professional services and of other activities of an independent character;
- (h) the terms "enterprise of a Contracting State" and "enterprise of the other Contracting State" mean respectively an enterprise carried on by a resident of a Contracting State and an enterprise carried on by a resident of the other Contracting State;
- (i) the term "international traffic" means any transport by a ship or aircraft operated by an enterprise of a Contracting State, except when the ship or aircraft is operated solely between places in the other Contracting State;
- (j) the term "national" means:
- (i) in the case of Japan, any individual possessing the nationality of Japan and any legal person, partnership or association deriving its status as such from the laws in force in Japan; and
- (ii) in the case of the Federal Republic of Germany, any German within the meaning of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz) for the Federal Republic of Germany and any legal person, partnership or association deriving its status as such from the laws in force in the Federal Republic of Germany;
- (k) the term "competent authority" means:
- (i) in the case of Japan, the Minister of Finance or his authorised representative; and
- (ii) in the case of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Federal Ministry of Finance or the agency to which it has delegated its powers.
(2) As regards the application of this Agreement at any time by a Contracting State, any term not defined therein shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the meaning that it has at that time under the laws of that Contracting State for the purposes of the taxes to which the Agreement applies, any meaning under the applicable tax laws of that Contracting State prevailing over a meaning given to the term under other laws of that Contracting State.