# 労働契約法 / Labor Contracts Act — 第一条 (Article 1)
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- Law: 労働契約法 (Labor Contracts Act), 平成十九年法律第百二十八号
- English title "Labor Contracts 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: 第一条 (Article 1)（目的） — address `art-1`
- Text in force since: 2020-04-01
- URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-contracts-act/art-1
- Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/419AC0000000128/art-1
- 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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### 第一条（目的） — (Purpose)
caption: Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System
art-1 · https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-contracts-act/art-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/419AC0000000128/art-1
**第一項** この法律は、労働者及び使用者の自主的な交渉の下で、労働契約が合意により成立し、又は変更されるという合意の原則その他労働契約に関する基本的事項を定めることにより、合理的な労働条件の決定又は変更が円滑に行われるようにすることを通じて、労働者の保護を図りつつ、個別の労働関係の安定に資することを目的とする。
art-1/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-contracts-act/art-1/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/419AC0000000128/art-1/par-1
The purpose of this Act is to contribute to achieving stability in individual labor relationships while protecting workers by ensuring that reasonable working conditions are decided on and reasonable changes to working conditions are made smoothly, by providing for the principle of agreement, under which a labor contract is to be established or changed by agreement through voluntary negotiation between a worker and an employer, and other basic matters concerning labor contracts.
Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System
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## Sources
- e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁) — 労働契約法 — the text in force from 2020-04-01 (https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/419AC0000000128/20200401_430AC0000000071), retrieved 2026-09-10
- Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — Labor Contracts Act — Ministry of Justice translation (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/3744/tb), retrieved 2026-09-10
- This site's parser, version 211 — 労働契約法 — structure, counts, cross-references and defined terms, computed 2026-09-10