Juveniles Act

• The family court investigates each case, drawing as far as it can on medicine, psychology, education, sociology and other expertise, and in particular on the assessment of a juvenile classification home (少年鑑別所). The trial and decision is not open to the public; it is to be conducted kindly and in a calm way, and to lead the juvenile to reflect on their delinquency. In the case of a juvenile who committed a crime punishable by death, life imprisonment or imprisonment (拘禁刑) with a maximum term of more than three years, the court may have a public prosecutor take part where that is needed to establish the facts, and must then give a juvenile who has no lawyer as attendant (付添人) one.(Art. 8(1), Art. 9(1), Art. 22(1), Art. 22(2), Art. 22-2(1), Art. 22-3(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Unless it sends the case to a public prosecutor, or to a prefectural governor or child guidance center director for measures under the Child Welfare Act (a separate Act), or finds it cannot or need not order one, the family court must order a disposition for rehabilitation (保護処分). For a juvenile under 18 it is one of three: probation under a probation office, referral to a children's self-reliance support facility or foster home (児童自立支援施設又は児童養護施設), or referral to a juvenile training school (少年院) — the last, for a juvenile under 14 at the time of the decision, only where the court finds it particularly necessary; specified juveniles have dispositions of their own. Once a juvenile who committed a crime has received a disposition, the case heard cannot be prosecuted or brought before the family court again, unless a decision revoking the disposition, because the court had no power over the person or a child under 14 had not been referred to it, has become final.(Art. 18(1), Art. 23(1), Art. 23(2), Art. 24(1), Art. 46(1), Art. 46(3), Art. 27-2(1), Art. 62(1), Art. 64(1), Art. 67(7)) (the provisions it rests on)
• In a case of an offence punishable by imprisonment (拘禁刑) or a heavier penalty, the family court must send the case to a public prosecutor where, after investigating, it finds criminal punishment appropriate given the nature and circumstances of the offence. It must do so for an intentional criminal act that caused a victim's death, committed at 16 or over, unless, after weighing the motive and manner of the offence, what followed it, and the juvenile's character, age, conduct and environment, it finds a measure other than criminal punishment appropriate. The prosecutor must then prosecute where there is enough suspicion of a crime to do so, unless they think prosecution inappropriate because part of the case lacks it, because new facts bearing on the circumstances of the crime have come to light, or because of what has happened since the referral.(Art. 20(1), Art. 20(2), Art. 45(1)(v)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Juveniles aged 18 or 19 are specified juveniles (特定少年), and the family court must send a specified juvenile's case to a public prosecutor whenever it finds criminal punishment appropriate, whatever the penalty for the offence. It must send it — unless, weighing the motive, manner and result of the offence, what followed it, and the juvenile's character, age, conduct and environment, it finds another measure appropriate — where the offence intentionally caused a victim's death and was committed at 16 or over, or is punishable by death, life imprisonment or imprisonment (拘禁刑) with a minimum term of one year or more and was committed at 18 or over. For an offence under the Public Offices Election Act or the Political Funds Control Act (both separate Acts) committed as a specified juvenile, it must weigh the fairness of elections in deciding, and must send — with the same proviso — an offence under Article 247 of the Public Offices Election Act, or one committed by the persons its Articles 251-2(1), 251-3(1) or 251-4(1) name, that it finds seriously impedes fair elections.(Art. 62(1), Art. 62(2), Art. 63(1), Art. 63(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The family court's dispositions for a specified juvenile are six months' or two years' probation under a probation office, or a juvenile training school, each kept within what the seriousness of the offence warrants, and only six months' probation for an offence punishable by no more than a fine. With a juvenile training school it sets a period of stay of up to three years, and with two years' probation a period of up to one year for which the juvenile may be held in a juvenile training school. On an application under the Offenders Rehabilitation Act (a separate Act), it must order a juvenile on two years' probation held in a juvenile training school if they have broken the conditions of probation seriously enough that only treatment there can rehabilitate them, unless that period is already used up.(Art. 64(1), Art. 64(2), Art. 64(3), Art. 66(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• No newspaper or other publication may print an article or photograph from which a reader could tell — by name, age, occupation, address, looks or otherwise — who a juvenile brought before the family court is, or who a person prosecuted for an offence committed as a juvenile is. For an offence committed as a specified juvenile, the ban ends once the person is prosecuted, unless a summary order has been requested under Article 461 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (a separate Act) and the case has not then moved to an ordinary trial.(Art. 61(1), Art. 68(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

• 24 June 2026

  The text on this site

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Civil Code, etc.

  民法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整備等に関する法律

  Act No. 46 of 2026The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 21 May 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Code of Criminal Procedure, etc. to Respond to Advances in Information and Communications Technology, etc.

  情報通信技術の進展等に対応するための刑事訴訟法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 39 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 21 May 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Code of Civil Procedure, etc.

  民事訴訟法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 48 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 October 2025

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts to Promote the Use of Information and Communications Technology in Civil Procedures, etc.

  民事関係手続等における情報通信技術の活用等の推進を図るための関係法律の整備に関する法律

  Act No. 53 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 22 July 2025

  Act on the Implementation of Agreements Between Japan and Other Contracting States Concerning the Facilitation of Reciprocal Access and Cooperation Between the Self-Defense Forces of Japan and the Armed Forces of Other Contracting States

  日本国の自衛隊と我が国以外の締約国の軍隊との間における相互のアクセス及び協力の円滑化に関する日本国と我が国以外の締約国との間の協定の実施に関する法律

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• 1 June 2025

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Penal Code, etc.

  刑法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整理等に関する法律

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• 23 May 2025

  Act Partially Amending the Code of Criminal Procedure, etc. to Respond to Advances in Information and Communications Technology, etc.

  情報通信技術の進展等に対応するための刑事訴訟法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 39 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 15 November 2023

  Act Partially Amending the Code of Criminal Procedure, etc.

  刑事訴訟法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 28 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 13 July 2023

  Act on the Punishment of Acts of Photographing Sexual Poses, etc. and the Erasure, etc. of Electronic or Magnetic Records of Images of Sexual Poses Recorded on Seized Articles

  性的な姿態を撮影する行為等の処罰及び押収物に記録された性的な姿態の影像に係る電磁的記録の消去等に関する法律

  Act No. 67 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 14 June 2023

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts to Promote the Use of Information and Communications Technology in Civil Procedures, etc.

  民事関係手続等における情報通信技術の活用等の推進を図るための関係法律の整備に関する法律

  Act No. 53 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

All 14 amendments already in force

• For specified juveniles, the family court's power over a juvenile brought in only because the signs the Act lists make it likely they will offend does not apply; nor — except in a case about breaking the conditions of probation under Article 26-4 — do urgent escort for protection, an escort warrant for urgent protection when carrying out a decision, or holding them on at a juvenile classification home after the decision. When the court revokes a specified juvenile's probation or juvenile-training-school disposition while they are held in a juvenile training school, it cannot keep them there for the up to three days Article 27-2(5) otherwise allows.(Art. 65(1), Art. 65(2), Art. 65(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The rules on keeping juveniles apart from other suspects and defendants and holding them apart from adults do not apply to a specified juvenile suspect whose case the family court has sent to a prosecutor, nor to any specified juvenile defendant; nor does separating a specified juvenile's trial from related trials. The juvenile rules on parole and on when a sentence counts as served (Articles 58 and 59) do not apply to a person sentenced as a specified juvenile.(Art. 67(2), Art. 67(3), Art. 67(5), Art. 49(1), Art. 49(2), Art. 49(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The specified-juvenile rules on sending a case to a prosecutor apply only to acts committed on or after 1 April 2022, when they came into force; those on indeterminate sentences, parole and when a sentence counts as served do not apply to acts committed before that day; and the lifting of the reporting ban applies only to prosecutions brought on or after it.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 1(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 2(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 4(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 7(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

• The Act sets no penalties of its own: it is carried out through the procedures it lays down for the family court, the police, public prosecutors and child guidance centers, and its ban on identifying reports (Article 61) states no penalty.(Art. 8(1), Art. 6-6(1), Art. 42(1), Art. 61(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A police officer may investigate a person whom, judging reasonably from objective circumstances, they have good reason to suspect of being a child under 14 who did something a criminal law prohibits, call in and question the child, their parent or guardian (保護者) or a witness — without compulsion — and seize, search and inspect as the Code of Criminal Procedure (a separate Act) allows. The officer must send the case to a child guidance center director where the act would be an intentional crime that caused a victim's death or one punishable by death, life imprisonment or imprisonment (拘禁刑) with a minimum term of two years or more, or where a family court trial and decision seems appropriate.(Art. 6-2(1), Art. 6-4(1), Art. 6-4(2), Art. 6-5(1), Art. 6-5(2), Art. 6-6(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A public prosecutor who has investigated a juvenile's suspected crime must send the case to the family court where they believe there is a suspicion of a crime, or that there are grounds for a trial and decision, other than a case the family court sent to them that they must prosecute; a judicial police officer sends a case straight to the family court where the offence is punishable by a fine or less, except for a specified juvenile. A prosecutor may ask a judge to detain (勾留) a juvenile suspect only where it is unavoidable, and may ask instead for measures of observation and protection (観護の措置); a detention warrant is issued against a juvenile only where it is unavoidable. Those two limits do not bind a specified juvenile once the family court has sent their case to a prosecutor, and the second does not bind a specified juvenile who has been prosecuted.(Art. 41(1), Art. 42(1), Art. 43(1), Art. 43(3), Art. 45(1)(v), Art. 48(1), Art. 67(1), Art. 67(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where needed for its trial and decision, the family court may place a juvenile under the observation and protection (観護の措置) of a family court investigating officer, or send them to a juvenile classification home. A stay there lasts up to two weeks, renewable once where specially needed — up to two more times in the case of a juvenile who committed a crime punishable by imprisonment (拘禁刑) or more, where the court has decided to hear witnesses, obtain expert opinion or inspect to establish the facts, or has done so, and there are reasonable grounds to think that not holding the juvenile would seriously hinder the trial — and never more than eight weeks in all. The juvenile, their legal representative or their attendant may object (異議の申立て) to the decision to send them or to renew, though not on the ground that there is no reason for a trial, and an attendant not against the express wish of the parent or guardian who appointed them — or, for a specified juvenile, of the juvenile.(Art. 17(1), Art. 17(3), Art. 17(4), Art. 17(9), Art. 17-2(1), Art. 17-2(2), Art. 65(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The family court may, where needed for its investigation or hearing, summon a juvenile or their parent or guardian and, if either fails without good reason to come, or is likely to, issue an escort warrant (同行状) to have them brought in. It may also issue one, without a summons, for a juvenile who urgently needs protection, where their welfare requires it — but not for a specified juvenile, except in a case about breaking the conditions of probation under Article 26-4.(Art. 11(1), Art. 11(2), Art. 12(1), Art. 62(1), Art. 65(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The juvenile, their parent or guardian, their spouse, lineal relatives or siblings, among others, may appoint an attendant (付添人) with the family court's permission, or without it if the attendant is a lawyer; and the juvenile and their parent or guardian may appoint a lawyer as attendant at any time during a police investigation of a child under 14. Where a juvenile is held in a juvenile classification home in a case of a crime punishable by death, life imprisonment or imprisonment (拘禁刑) with a maximum term of more than three years — or, for a child under 14, an act that would be such a crime — and has no lawyer, the court may appoint one as attendant if, given the case, whether there is a parent or guardian and other circumstances, it finds a lawyer's part in the hearing necessary.(Art. 10(1), Art. 6-3(1), Art. 22-3(2), Art. 22-2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The juvenile, their legal representative or their attendant may appeal (抗告) a disposition for rehabilitation within two weeks, only on the ground of a breach of law that affected the decision, a serious error of fact, or a grossly unjust disposition; an attendant cannot appeal against the express wish of the parent or guardian who appointed them, or, for a specified juvenile, of the juvenile. The appeal court's decision may be appealed again to the Supreme Court within two weeks, only on the ground that it breaches or misreads the Constitution or conflicts with a precedent of the Supreme Court or of a high court sitting as a court of second instance (控訴裁判所). Where a public prosecutor took part in the hearing, the prosecutor may, within two weeks, ask the high court to take up an appeal against a decision ordering or refusing a disposition, only on the ground of a breach of law affecting the decision or a serious error in finding the delinquent act. No appeal stops the disposition being carried out unless a court orders a stay.(Art. 32(1), Art. 65(4), Art. 35(1), Art. 32-4(1), Art. 34(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A criminal court that finds, after examining the facts, that a juvenile defendant should receive a disposition for rehabilitation must send the case back to the family court. A person under 18 when they committed the offence who would be sentenced to death is sentenced to life imprisonment (無期拘禁刑) instead. One who would be sentenced to life imprisonment may instead be given a fixed term of imprisonment of 10 to 20 years.(Art. 55(1), Art. 51(1), Art. 51(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A juvenile under 18 who is to be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment (拘禁刑) receives an indeterminate sentence — a longest and a shortest term, the longest no more than 15 years and the shortest no more than 10 — unless the sentence is suspended. They are not sentenced to detention in a workhouse (労役場留置). They serve imprisonment in a specially set-up penal institution or a separated area, which may continue until they turn 26, and for one under 16 it may be carried out in a juvenile training school, with correctional education, until they turn 16.(Art. 52(1), Art. 52(3), Art. 54(1), Art. 56(1), Art. 56(2), Art. 56(3), Art. 62(1), Art. 67(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A person sentenced for an offence committed as a juvenile who has finished serving the sentence, or been exempted from it, is treated from then on as never having been sentenced, for the laws and regulations on personal qualifications (人の資格に関する法令); for those laws, a suspended sentence counts as served while the suspension lasts, and if the suspension is revoked the person counts as sentenced from that moment. This does not apply to an offence committed as a specified juvenile.(Art. 60(1), Art. 60(2), Art. 60(3), Art. 67(6)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A person on probation as a disposition (Article 24(1)(i)) who, after a warning under the Offenders Rehabilitation Act (a separate Act), still fails to keep its conditions, seriously enough that probation cannot rehabilitate them, must on an application under that Act be given a stronger disposition: referral to a children's self-reliance support facility or foster home, or to a juvenile training school. For a person 20 or over sent to a juvenile training school this way, the court sets at the same time a period of stay that does not run past their 23rd birthday.(Art. 26-4(1), Art. 26-4(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The family court may collect from the juvenile, or from anyone obliged to support them, all or part of what it paid to witnesses, expert witnesses, interpreters, translators, reference persons (参考人), court-appointed attendants and those entrusted with the juvenile's guidance, and of the costs incurred at the juvenile classification home and juvenile training school.(Art. 31(1)) (the provisions it rests on)