# 著作権法 / Copyright Act — 第五十一条 (Article 51) - Law: 著作権法 (Copyright Act), 昭和四十五年法律第四十八号 - English title "Copyright Act": Ministry of Justice translation - Kind: Act — 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: 第五十一条 (Article 51)（保護期間の原則） — address `art-51` - Text in force since: 2026-06-24 - URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/en/copyright-act/art-51 - Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/345AC0000000048/art-51 - 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. --- ### 第五十一条（保護期間の原則） — (General Terms of Protection) caption: Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System art-51 · https://japanlaw.org/en/copyright-act/art-51 · https://japanlaw.org/l/345AC0000000048/art-51 **第一項** 著作権の存続期間は、著作物の創作の時に始まる。 art-51/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/en/copyright-act/art-51/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/345AC0000000048/art-51/par-1 The duration of copyright begins at the time the work is created. Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System **第二項** 著作権は、この節に別段の定めがある場合を除き、著作者の死後（共同著作物にあつては、最終に死亡した著作者の死後。次条第一項において同じ。）七十年を経過するまでの間、存続する。 art-51/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/en/copyright-act/art-51/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/l/345AC0000000048/art-51/par-2 Unless otherwise specified in this Section, a copyright subsists for a period of 70 years after the death of the author (or the death of the last surviving co-author, for a joint work; the same applies in paragraph (1) of the following Article). Ministry of Justice translation with a slip corrected by this site — not the Ministry's text; the Ministry printed: "Unless otherwise specified in this Section, a copyright subsists for a period of 70 years after the death of the author (or the death of the last surviving co-author, for a joint work; the same applies in paragraph (1) of following Article)." — https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/4207/tb --- ## Cites - art-51/par-2: 次条第一項 → 著作権法 第五十二条第一項 (Article 52, paragraph (1)), art-52/par-1 — https://japanlaw.org/en/copyright-act/art-52/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/345AC0000000048/art-52/par-1 ## Cited by 4 provisions cite this one. No official source publishes this direction. - 著作権法 第五十七条第一項（保護期間の計算方法） — https://japanlaw.org/en/copyright-act/art-57/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/345AC0000000048/art-57/par-1 - 著作権法 第五十八条第一項（保護期間の特例） — https://japanlaw.org/en/copyright-act/art-58/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/345AC0000000048/art-58/par-1 - 著作権法 附則第十条第二項（合著作物についての経過措置） — https://japanlaw.org/en/copyright-act/suppl-3451-48/art-10/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/l/345AC0000000048/suppl-3451-48/art-10/par-2 - 著作権法 附則第七条第一項（著作権法の一部改正に伴う経過措置） — https://japanlaw.org/en/copyright-act/suppl-4281-108/art-7/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/345AC0000000048/suppl-4281-108/art-7/par-1 --- ## Sources - claude-opus-5-5 — Corrections to the Ministry of Justice's English of paragraphs, written 2026-10-19 - e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁) — 著作権法 — the text in force from 2026-06-24 (https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345AC0000000048/20260624_508AC0000000048), retrieved 2026-10-19 - Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — Copyright Act — Ministry of Justice translation (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/4207/tb), retrieved 2026-10-19 - Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — Copyright Act (著作権法), Article 51, paragraph (2) — the Ministry of Justice's English as printed (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/4207/tb), retrieved 2026-10-19 - This site's parser, version 210 — 著作権法 — structure, counts, cross-references and defined terms, computed 2026-10-19