# 日本国憲法 / The Constitution of Japan — 第十八条 (Article 18)

This is the Markdown twin of https://japanlaw.org/en/constitution/art-18. Every law, and how to address a provision: https://japanlaw.org/llms.txt. The same laws as MCP tools (no sign-in): https://japanlaw.org/mcp.

- 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: 第十八条 (Article 18) — address `art-18`
- Text in force since: 1947-05-03
- URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/en/constitution/art-18
- Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/321CONSTITUTION/art-18
- 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.

---

### 第十八条
<sup>art-18 · https://japanlaw.org/en/constitution/art-18 · https://japanlaw.org/l/321CONSTITUTION/art-18</sup>

**第一項**  何人も、いかなる奴隷的拘束も受けない。又、犯罪に因る処罰の場合を除いては、その意に反する苦役に服させられない。
<sup>art-18/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/en/constitution/art-18/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/321CONSTITUTION/art-18/par-1</sup>
No person shall be held in bondage of any kind. Involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime, is prohibited.
<sup>Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>

---

## 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