State Redress Act

国家賠償法（こっかばいしょうほう）

When the State or a public entity must pay compensation: for harm a public employee exercising public authority causes unlawfully, intentionally or negligently, in the course of their duties, and for damage caused by a defect in a road, river or other public structure.

Text in force since
Promulgated
Articles: 6
Amendments on the way: 0

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What this law does

When a public employee (公務員) who exercises the public authority (公権力の行使) of the State or of a public entity (公共団体), in the course of their duties, unlawfully causes loss or damage to another person intentionally or negligently, the State or that public entity must compensate it.(Art. 1(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

Read the full overview

Where that employee acted intentionally or with gross negligence, the State or public entity that paid has a right to be reimbursed (求償権) by the employee.(Art. 1(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
When a defect in the placement or administration of a road, river or other public structure (公の営造物) causes loss or damage to another person, the State or public entity must compensate it. If someone else is responsible for the cause of the damage, the State or public entity has a right to be reimbursed by them.(Art. 2(1), Art. 2(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
Where the body that appoints or supervises the employee, or places or administers the structure, is not the one that bears the employee's salary and other costs or the costs of the structure, the one bearing the costs must also compensate the loss or damage. Whichever of them pays may claim reimbursement from the one liable for it as between themselves.(Art. 3(1), Art. 3(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
Beyond what Articles 1 to 3 provide, the liability of the State or a public entity to compensate follows the provisions of the Civil Code (民法), a separate Act.(Art. 4(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

Harm caused by public employeesDefects in roads, rivers and other public structuresLiability of the body bearing the costsRelation to the Civil CodeRules in other ActsForeign victims

Amendments

A Japanese law is changed by another law or order that rewrites it — an . No amendment to this law is waiting to come into force. Its amendment history is below. The amendments this site has read the changes of are on this law's amendments page, provision by provision, in Japanese and English.

1 amendments already in force

27 October 1947
The text on this site
e-Gov gives no title for this amendment
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

Who it applies to

It applies to

The State (国) and public entities (公共団体), which must compensate loss or damage that public employees exercising the State's or the public entity's public authority cause unlawfully, intentionally or negligently, in the course of their duties, or that a defect in a public structure causes.(Art. 1(1), Art. 2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
Whoever bears an employee's salary and other costs, or the costs of placing or administering a public structure, where that is not the body that appoints or supervises the employee or places or administers the structure: it must compensate as well.(Art. 3(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

2 more

Public employees who exercise public authority: where the State or public entity has paid compensation under Article 1(1) and the employee acted intentionally or with gross negligence, it may make them reimburse it.(Art. 1(2), Art. 1(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
Anyone else responsible for the cause of damage from a defective public structure, from whom the State or public entity may claim reimbursement.(Art. 2(2)) (the provisions it rests on)

It does not apply to

Where the victim is a foreign national (外国人), the Act applies only when a mutual guarantee (相互の保証) exists; without one, it does not apply.(Art. 6(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

Special rules and exceptions (1)

Where an Act other than the Civil Code (民法) makes a different rule (別段の定め) on the State's or a public entity's liability to compensate, that Act's rule applies.(Art. 5(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

How it is enforced (1)

The Act has no penalties and names no official to enforce it. It states who owes compensation to the injured person, and who may claim reimbursement from whom once compensation has been paid.(Art. 1(1), Art. 1(2), Art. 2(1), Art. 2(2), Art. 3(1), Art. 3(2)) (the provisions it rests on)

How it connects to other laws

It does not cite, and is not cited by, any other law held here.

Where the translation comes from

The Ministry of Justice's translation is shown only where the Japanese it translates matches the law in force today. Everywhere else the English is a machine translation, marked on the paragraph itself.

Only the Japanese is the law, and no lawyer has reviewed the machine translation.

Sources

Everything this page rests on

e-Gov (Digital Agency)国家賠償法 — the text in force from 1947-10-27Original
e-Gov (Digital Agency)国家賠償法 — revision historyOriginal
Japanese Law Translation, Ministry of JusticeState Redress Act — Ministry of Justice translationOriginal
Machine translation, not official
Written for this site with AIDescriptions of each law, written for this site
Written for this site with AICorrections to the Ministry of Justice's English of paragraphs
Worked out by this site from e-Gov's text

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