Business and companies

The rules for forming, organising, running and managing companies: the four kinds of company, their shareholders or members, their directors and other officers, their accounts, and how they merge, split and dissolve.

The rules of Japan's markets in securities and derivatives: what a company raising money from investors or listed on an exchange must disclose, who may run an investment business and how it must treat customers, and the bans on insider trading, market manipulation and fraud.

Who may carry on banking (銀行業) in Japan, and how banks, their major shareholders, their agents and the electronic payment businesses that work with them are licensed, authorised or registered and supervised, so that banking stays sound and depositors (預金者等) are protected.

Sets registration, notification and supervision rules, to protect users and keep payments safe, efficient and convenient, for issuers of prepaid payment instruments, non-bank funds transfer services, dealers in electronic payment instruments, cryptoasset exchanges (until Act No. 64 of 2026 takes them out of this Act), businesses that analyse banks' funds transfers, and organizations that clear funds-transfer debts between banks.

Fair competition between businesses: it lets a business stop, and claim damages for, acts such as copying another's well-known name or product, taking trade secrets or misleading labelling, punishes the worst of them, and bans bribing foreign public officials.

Fair dealing for smaller businesses that make, repair, create or transport things or provide services for a larger business — terms stated at once, payment within 60 days, and a list of acts the larger business must not do; until the amendment in force from 1 January 2026, the Act was titled 下請代金支払遅延等防止法 (the Act against Delay in Payment of Subcontract Proceeds, etc. to Subcontractors).

Who needs a permit to deal in secondhand goods (古物) as a business, and what dealers must do — check who they buy from, keep records, report goods they suspect — so that stolen goods are not traded and are found quickly.

Who holds rights in creative works and in performances, phonograms and broadcasts, what those rights cover and how long they last, when others may use works without permission, and how infringement is stopped, compensated and punished.

The licence (許可) needed to run a business that lodges people for a fee — a hotel or inn, shared lodgings or a boarding house — and the rules its operator follows on hygiene, the guest register, infectious diseases and refusing guests.

It protects hot springs, guards against disasters caused by the flammable natural gas that comes up when they are drilled for or extracted, and governs their use for public bathing and drinking, mainly through permission from the prefectural governor.

Who may do electrical work (電気工事) on electrical installations, and what they must do while working, so that faulty electrical work does not lead to disasters.