Constitution

The highest law in Japan. Every Act, Cabinet Order and Ministerial Order has to conform to it, and anything in conflict with it has no legal force. It is also the hardest law to change: an amendment needs a two-thirds vote in each House of the Diet and then a majority in a national referendum, where an ordinary Act needs neither. That is why the Constitution of Japan (日本国憲法) — promulgated on 3 November 1946, in force since 3 May 1947 — has never once been amended, while the Labor Standards Act (労働基準法), passed a few months after it, has been amended dozens of times.