Act on the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the Protection of Victims

• Each prefecture makes the women's counseling and support centres (女性相談支援センター) or other suitable facilities it runs serve as spousal violence counseling and support centres (配偶者暴力相談支援センター), and each municipality is to try to do the same with its own facilities. The centres give counselling, guidance for recovering physical and mental health, emergency safety and temporary protection (一時保護) for victims and the family members with them, and help with work, housing and other schemes, with protection orders, and with facilities where victims can live under protection. Temporary protection itself is carried out by the prefecture's women's counseling and support centre, or by a body meeting the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare's standards that it entrusts.(Art. 3(1), Art. 3(2), Art. 3(3), Art. 3(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Anyone who finds a person suffering physical violence from a spouse or former spouse is to try to report it to a spousal violence counseling and support centre or a police officer. Doctors and other medical staff who, in their work, find a person injured or made ill by such violence may report it, trying to respect that person's wishes, and are to try to tell the person about the centres.(Art. 6(1), Art. 6(2), Art. 6(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Police officers who find, from a report or otherwise, that physical violence by a spouse or former spouse is taking place are to try to stop it, protect the victim and take the other steps needed to prevent harm, as the Police Act, the Police Duties Execution Act and other laws and regulations provide. A person suffering such violence can ask the police for help in protecting themselves, and where the request is reasonable the police advise them on how to prevent harm and give other help, as National Public Safety Commission Rules (国家公安委員会規則) provide.(Art. 6(1), Art. 8(1), Art. 8-2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where a victim has suffered physical violence from a spouse, or a threat to harm their life, body, freedom, reputation or property, and further such violence or threats are highly likely to do serious harm to their life or to their mind and body, a court on the victim's petition orders the spouse — or the former spouse, where the victim divorced or the marriage was annulled after the violence — for one year, not to follow the victim around or hang about near the victim's home (other than a home the victim shares with the spouse as their main home), workplace or other places the victim usually is: a stay-away order (接近禁止命令). On the victim's petition the court that makes it also orders, for the same year, that the spouse not do acts against the victim such as demanding to meet, repeated calls or messages, calls or messages between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. except in an emergency, sending filthy or sexually humiliating material, and tracking the victim's location with a location-tracking device without consent. Where needed to keep the victim from being forced to meet the spouse over them, it extends the order to a minor child (成年に達しない子) living with the victim — barring most of those acts toward the child too, with the child's consent if 15 or older — and to relatives and others close to the victim who do not live with the spouse, with their consent, or their legal representative's (法定代理人) where they are under 15 or under certain court-ordered guardianship.(Art. 10(1), Art. 10(2), Art. 10(3), Art. 10(4), Art. 10(5)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where a victim who still lives with the spouse when petitioning has suffered physical violence from the spouse, or a threat to harm their life or body, and further physical violence is highly likely to do serious harm to their life or body, a court on the victim's petition orders the spouse — or the former spouse, where the victim divorced or the marriage was annulled after the violence or threat — to leave the shared home and not to hang about near it for two months, or six months where the victim alone owns or rents the home and asks for it: an eviction order (退去等命令). A second eviction order on the same facts is issued only where it is needed — for example because the victim, through no fault of their own, could not finish moving out within the first order's period — and the court may refuse it if it would gravely disrupt the spouse's life.(Art. 10-2(1), Art. 18(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

• 30 December 2025

  Act Partially Amending the Act on the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the Protection of Victims

  配偶者からの暴力の防止及び被害者の保護等に関する法律の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 84 of 2025The 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

• 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

  Act No. 68 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2024

  Act Partially Amending the Act on the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the Protection of Victims

  配偶者からの暴力の防止及び被害者の保護等に関する法律の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 30 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2024

  Act on Support for Women Facing Difficult Problems

  困難な問題を抱える女性への支援に関する法律

  Act No. 52 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 March 2024

  Act Partially Amending the Act on the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the Protection of Victims

  配偶者からの暴力の防止及び被害者の保護等に関する法律の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 30 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

• 19 May 2023

  Act Partially Amending the Act on the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the Protection of Victims

  配偶者からの暴力の防止及び被害者の保護等に関する法律の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 30 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 17 June 2022

  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

  Act No. 68 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

All 14 amendments already in force

• The Penal Code's crime of unlawfully disclosing secrets (秘密漏示罪) and other confidentiality duties in Acts are not to be read as stopping anyone from reporting spousal violence under Article 6.(Art. 6(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Parties to protection-order proceedings may ask to inspect and copy the case record, but the respondent may not until a date for an oral argument or a hearing summoning them has been set, or the order has been served on them. This is the rule until a day a Cabinet Order sets, no later than 13 June 2028.This is the rule until the change takes effect, 13 June 2028 at the latest.(Art. 19(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• From a day a Cabinet Order sets, no later than 13 June 2028, parties to protection-order proceedings may ask to inspect and copy the case record, whether kept on paper or as electronic records, and for certified statements of matters in the case. The respondent may not make any of these requests until a date for an oral argument or a hearing summoning them has been set, or the order has been served on them.This is the rule from a day still to be set, 13 June 2028 at the latest.(Art. 19(1), Art. 19(3), Art. 19-2(1), Art. 19-2(4), Art. 19-3(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

• Protection orders (保護命令) are decided by a district court: the one for the area where the respondent lives, or the one for the petitioner's home or the place where the violence or threat took place. The petition must be in writing, stating the violence suffered, the circumstances showing the risk, and whether the victim consulted a support centre or the police and what was done; where it does not state such a consultation, a statement of the petitioner certified by a notary (公証人) must be attached.(Art. 11(1), Art. 11(2), Art. 11(3), Art. 12(1), Art. 12(2), Art. 12(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The court is to decide promptly. It cannot issue an order without an oral argument or a hearing the respondent can attend, unless waiting for one would defeat the purpose of the petition. Where the petition states that the victim consulted a support centre or the police, the court asks that centre or police office for a record of what the victim reported and what was done.(Art. 13(1), Art. 14(1), Art. 14(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• An order takes effect when the decision is served on the respondent, or when it is announced at an oral argument or hearing the respondent attends. The court clerk then tells the police headquarters for the petitioner's area, and, where the petition names a support centre the petitioner consulted, that centre (the most recent one, if several). A protection order has no enforceability (執行力を有しない): it cannot be carried out by compulsory execution.(Art. 15(2), Art. 15(3), Art. 15(4), Art. 15(5)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A decision on a petition can be challenged by an immediate appeal (即時抗告), but the appeal does not suspend the order. The court may suspend it only where facts that clearly give grounds to revoke it are shown on a prima facie basis (疎明). When a stay-away order is suspended or revoked on appeal, the orders under Article 10, paragraphs (2) to (4) issued with it are suspended or revoked with it.(Art. 16(1), Art. 16(2), Art. 16(3), Art. 16(4), Art. 16(6)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The court must revoke an order when the person who petitioned for it asks. The person bound by the order may also ask — three months after a stay-away order took effect, or two weeks after an eviction order did — and the court revokes it if it confirms the petitioner does not object. Revoking a stay-away order also revokes the orders under Article 10, paragraphs (2) to (4) issued with it.(Art. 17(1), Art. 17(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A person under an order protecting a child living with the victim can ask the court that made it to revoke it because its conditions are no longer met, from six months after the stay-away order took effect or three months after the child order did, whichever is later. The court must first hear the person who petitioned for the order, an immediate appeal (即時抗告) lies against the decision, and a revocation takes effect only once final.(Art. 17(3), Art. 17(4), Art. 17(5), Art. 17(6)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Violating a protection order — including one issued for violence by a partner one lives with under Article 28-2 — is punishable by imprisonment (拘禁刑) of up to two years or a fine of up to 2 million yen.(Art. 29(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Those entrusted with temporary protection and their officers and staff, and anyone who works on a council (協議会) on victims' protection, must not reveal secrets learned in that work without good reason, even after leaving it; doing so is punishable by imprisonment (拘禁刑) of up to one year or a fine of up to 500,000 yen.(Art. 3(5), Art. 5-3(1), Art. 30(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Petitioning for a protection order with a petition that is false on the matters it must state carries a non-criminal fine (過料) of up to 100,000 yen.(Art. 31(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Everyone whose work involves protecting victims, investigating or judging spousal violence must take account of the victim's mental and physical state and circumstances, respect their human rights whatever their nationality or disability, and take full care of their safety and of keeping their information secret.(Art. 23(1)) (the provisions it rests on)