Japanese law, inside the AI you already use.

In the assistant you already use

For anyone with a question about Japanese law — work, a lease, a visa. Add the server once and ask in your own words; the answer quotes the statute and links it.

For lawyers and legal teams

For firms and in-house teams on a legal AI platform or Microsoft 365. The source is the published statute, cited to the item, with the Ministry of Justice's English kept apart from machine translation. What the server is asked is the words to search for, and the provision to read with the day or version to read it as of, with the request details any website receives — the assistant's name and version, the address the call comes from — and never an account or the conversation.

HarveyFor firms on Harvey: how a workspace admin can bring japanlaw.org in.LegoraFor firms on Legora: connecting japanlaw.org as an MCP server.Microsoft CopilotCopilot Studio: build a Japanese-law agent your organization uses in Teams and Microsoft 365.

For developers and coding agents

For code that has to follow Japanese law. The same server in your editor or terminal — and, without MCP, the Markdown, the JSON API and llms.txt.

/plugin marketplace add japanlaw/plugin
/plugin install japanlaw@japanlaw

codex plugin marketplace add japanlaw/plugin
codex plugin add japanlaw@japanlaw

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "japanlaw": {
      "url": "https://japanlaw.org/mcp"
    }
  }
}

curl https://japanlaw.org/md/en/labor-standards-act/art-36

curl -G https://japanlaw.org/api/search --data-urlencode 'q=時間外労働' -d lang=en

# 労働基準法 / Labor Standards Act — 第三十六条 (Article 36)

- Law: 労働基準法 (Labor Standards Act), 昭和二十二年法律第四十九号
- English title "Labor Standards Act": Ministry of Justice translation
- Kind: Act — the distinction between 法律 (Act), 政令 (Cabinet Order), 省令 (Ministerial Order) and 条例 (local ordinance) decides who may issue it and what it may say.
- Provision: 第三十六条 (Article 36)（時間外及び休日の労働） — address `art-36`
- Text in force since: 2026-07-17
- URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-standards-act/art-36
- e-Gov law ID: 322AC0000000049 — never renamed. A permanent link, `/l/{lawId}/{address}` on this site, redirects to the page.
- Every provision below carries its address and its URL on the line under it.
- Japanese text: e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁). English: as marked on each line below.

[…]

### 第三十六条（時間外及び休日の労働） — (Overtime Work and Work on Days Off)
<sup>caption: Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>

**第一項**  使用者は、当該事業場に、労働者の過半数で組織する労働組合がある場合においてはその労働組合、労働者の過半数で組織する労働組合がな […]
<sup>art-36/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-standards-act/art-36/p […]
Notwithstanding the provisions on working hours in Articles 32 through 3 […]

[…]

## Cites
- art-36/par-1: 第三十二条から第三十二条の五まで → 労働基準法 第三十二条 (Article 32), art-32 — https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-standards-act/art-32

[…]

## Cited by

79 provisions cite this one. No official source publishes this direction.

- 労働基準法 第三十二条の三の二第一項 — https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-standards-act/art-32-3-2/par-1
[…]

What it can do

The tools answer from the law this site holds. The assistant picks the ones a question needs.

searchquery; law, page, limit, lang

Finds provisions, laws and defined terms by Japanese or English words, in every law held or in one, best match first. Each result has an id for fetch and the page's URL.

fetchid; asOf, version, lang

Reads what a search result's id names: a provision in Japanese with its English, each line marked as the Ministry's translation or machine translation — in force, or as it stood on a day; or a law's overview and outline.

list_lawskind, topic, query, lang

The laws japanlaw.org holds — all, or those of one kind, one topic or whose names hold some words — each with its title, number and kind.

get_lawlaw; aspect, outline, under, lang

One law: what it is for, who it binds and who it does not — its exceptions and how it is enforced on request — the texts of it held, earlier and to come, and its chapters, or what is under one of them.

get_provisionlaw, address; asOf, version, references, cursor, lang

An article, paragraph or item by its citation — 第三十六条第二項, Article 36(2) or art-36/par-2 — in Japanese and English, with the terms it defines, how many provisions it cites and how many cite it, and its URLs: in force, or as it stood on a day. Shown as a card where the app can draw one.

get_citing_provisionslaw, address; limit, lang

Every provision in the collection that cites the one given, with links. No official source publishes this direction.

get_definitionslaw; address, term, cursor, lang

The words a law defines for itself — 労働者, 賃金 — each with the statute's own definition, its English and whose that is, a plain explanation, where it is defined and how far it reaches. Given a provision, the definitions that apply in it and the legal vocabulary it uses.

get_amendmentslaw; version, cursor, lang

A law's amendments: the amending Act, its number, the day it takes effect and whether it is in force. Given one, every provision it changes, before and after, in Japanese and English, each English marked as the Ministry's or machine translation.

list_changessince, until, law, topic, limit, cursor, lang

What changes in Japanese law between two days, across every law held, or one law's or one topic's: each change's day, the law, the amending Act and a link. With no end day, every change still to come.

Things to ask

• How many hours of overtime can my employer ask of me in a month in Japan? Quote the article.
• Which provisions of the Companies Act cite Article 362? List them with links.
• When can a landlord in Japan refuse to renew a lease? Check 借地借家法 and say whose English it is.

Two rules that keep the answer honest