# 日本国憲法 / The Constitution of Japan — 第十三条 (Article 13)

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- Law: 日本国憲法 (The Constitution of Japan), 昭和二十一年憲法
- English title "The Constitution of Japan": Ministry of Justice translation
- Kind: Constitution — the distinction between 法律 (Act), 政令 (Cabinet Order), 省令 (Ministerial Order) and 条例 (local ordinance) decides who may issue it and what it may say.
- Provision: 第十三条 (Article 13) — address `art-13`
- Text in force since: 1947-05-03
- URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/en/constitution/art-13
- Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/321CONSTITUTION/art-13
- Every provision below carries its address and both URLs on the line under it.
- Japanese text: e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁). English: as marked on each line below.

Only the Japanese as published by the government has legal effect; the text
below is a copy of it. Every English rendering below is a translation and
says which kind: the Ministry of Justice's translation, or this
site's machine translation, whose model and date the Sources list names.
They are never merged and never substituted for one another.

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### 第十三条
<sup>art-13 · https://japanlaw.org/en/constitution/art-13 · https://japanlaw.org/l/321CONSTITUTION/art-13</sup>

**第一項**  すべて国民は、個人として尊重される。生命、自由及び幸福追求に対する国民の権利については、公共の福祉に反しない限り、立法その他の国政の上で、最大の尊重を必要とする。
<sup>art-13/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/en/constitution/art-13/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/321CONSTITUTION/art-13/par-1</sup>
All of the people shall be respected as individuals. Their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness shall, to the extent that it does not interfere with the public welfare, be the supreme consideration in legislation and in other governmental affairs.
<sup>Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>

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## Sources

- e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁) — 日本国憲法 — the text in force from 1947-05-03 (https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/321CONSTITUTION/19470503_000000000000000), retrieved 2026-09-16
- Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — The Constitution of Japan — Ministry of Justice translation (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/174/tb), retrieved 2026-09-16
- This site's parser, version 211 — 日本国憲法 — structure, counts, cross-references and defined terms, computed 2026-09-16