# Laws — japanlaw.org

This is the Markdown twin of https://japanlaw.org/en/laws. 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.

Japanese law, every provision in force, in English beside the Japanese. By topic: work, visas, tax, pensions, business, consumers, family, housing and crime.

- 140 laws, by topic (分野), each with its kind (an Act (法律), a Cabinet Order (政令), a Ministerial Order (省令) and so on), its law number, the day its text in force took effect and how much of it has English. Each topic heading links to the topic's page, whose Markdown twin is the same path under /md.
- Each law links to its page; its Markdown twin is the same path under /md. The descriptions are this site's own summaries, not the law's words.
- Only the Japanese as published by the government has legal effect.

## [Work and employment (労働)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/work)

- [労働基準法 / Labor Standards Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-standards-act): 昭和二十二年法律第四十九号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-07-17 · 124 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The legal minimum for working conditions: working hours, breaks and days off, leave, wages and notice of dismissal. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/labor-standards-act
- [労働基準法施行規則 / Ordinance for Enforcement of the Labor Standards Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-standards-act-enforcement-ordinance): 昭和二十二年厚生省令第二十三号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2026-04-01 · 110 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Ministerial Order setting out details that the Labor Standards Act leaves to an Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/labor-standards-act-enforcement-ordinance
- [労働契約法 / Labor Contracts Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-contracts-act): 平成十九年法律第百二十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2020-04-01 · 21 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules of the individual labor contract: how it is formed and changed, and when a dismissal is void. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/labor-contracts-act
- [短時間労働者及び有期雇用労働者の雇用管理の改善等に関する法律 / Act on Improvement of Personnel Management and Conversion of Employment Status for Part-Time Workers and Fixed-Term Workers](https://japanlaw.org/en/part-time-and-fixed-term-workers-act): 平成五年法律第七十六号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 32 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Balanced treatment for part-time and fixed-term workers: no unreasonable gap in pay and other treatment between them and the employer's workers with a standard employment status, an explanation of any gap on request, a way into standard employment, and help from the director of the prefectural labour bureau in settling disputes. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/part-time-and-fixed-term-workers-act
- [特定受託事業者に係る取引の適正化等に関する法律 / Act on Ensuring Proper Transactions Involving Specified Entrusted Business Operators](https://japanlaw.org/en/freelance-act): 令和五年法律第二十五号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2024-11-01 · 26 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Fair dealing for self-employed people and one-person companies with no employees who take on work from businesses: terms stated in writing or electronically, payment on time, no unfair treatment, and a working environment free of harassment, among other rules. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/freelance-act
- [最低賃金法 / Minimum Wage Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/minimum-wage-act): 昭和三十四年法律第百三十七号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 42 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. It guarantees low-paid workers a lowest wage, set by the hour, that their employer must pay: one for every region of Japan and, for some businesses or occupations, a higher one. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/minimum-wage-act
- [育児休業、介護休業等育児又は家族介護を行う労働者の福祉に関する法律 / Act on Childcare Leave, Caregiver Leave, and Other Measures for the Welfare of Workers Caring for Children or Other Family Members](https://japanlaw.org/en/childcare-and-family-care-leave-act): 平成三年法律第七十六号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 79 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Leave and working arrangements that let a worker raising a child or caring for a family member keep their job: childcare leave, caregiver leave, days off to look after a child or a family member, limits on overtime and night work, shorter hours, and the measures employers must take. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/childcare-and-family-care-leave-act
- [賃金の支払の確保等に関する法律 / Act on Ensuring Wage Payment](https://japanlaw.org/en/wage-payment-act): 昭和五十一年法律第三十四号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 21 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Protection for workers' pay when a business fails or a worker leaves: when an employer goes bankrupt or another event a Cabinet Order sets happens, the government pays unpaid wages within a range a Cabinet Order sets; the employer owes interest on wages still unpaid after a worker leaves; and workers' savings an employer holds as deposits must be safeguarded. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/wage-payment-act
- [労働施策の総合的な推進並びに労働者の雇用の安定及び職業生活の充実等に関する法律 / Act on Comprehensively Advancing Labor Measures, and Stabilizing the Employment of Workers, and Enriching Workers' Vocational Lives](https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-measures-act): 昭和四十一年法律第百三十二号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 55 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Sets out the State's labor policy and gives employers a set of duties: equal chances regardless of age in recruitment, reports on the foreign nationals they hire or lose and on large job losses, and measures against harmful conduct at work by someone in a superior position (commonly called power harassment). Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/labor-measures-act
- [雇用の分野における男女の均等な機会及び待遇の確保等に関する法律 / Act on Equal Opportunity and Treatment between Men and Women in Employment](https://japanlaw.org/en/equal-employment-opportunity-act): 昭和四十七年法律第百十三号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 39 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. It bans discrimination by sex at work, from recruitment to dismissal, protects women workers from dismissal for marrying and from dismissal or other disadvantage over pregnancy and childbirth, and makes employers act against sexual harassment at the workplace. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/equal-employment-opportunity-act
- [高年齢者等の雇用の安定等に関する法律 / Act on Employment Security of Elderly Persons](https://japanlaw.org/en/elderly-employment-act): 昭和四十六年法律第六十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2022-10-01 · 60 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Keeps older people in work: it sets 60 as the lowest mandatory retirement age as a rule, makes employers whose retirement age is under 65 take measures to keep workers employed until 65, asks employers to try to secure work until 70, and supports older job seekers and retirees, including through Silver Human Resources Centers (シルバー人材センター). Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/elderly-employment-act
- [障害者の雇用の促進等に関する法律 / Act to Facilitate the Employment of Persons with Disabilities](https://japanlaw.org/en/employment-of-persons-with-disabilities-act): 昭和三十五年法律第百二十三号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 117 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. It sets the share of people with disabilities that employers must employ, collects a levy from employers below a benchmark share to fund payments and grants to employers, bans disability discrimination at work and makes employers take measures suited to a person's disability, and organizes vocational rehabilitation. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/employment-of-persons-with-disabilities-act
- [労働者派遣事業の適正な運営の確保及び派遣労働者の保護等に関する法律 / Act on Ensuring the Proper Operation of Worker Dispatching Services and Protecting Dispatched Workers](https://japanlaw.org/en/worker-dispatch-act): 昭和六十年法律第八十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 94 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules for businesses that send the workers they employ to work under another person's direction and for that person (worker dispatch, 労働者派遣), to keep that business properly run and to protect the dispatched workers and their employment. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/worker-dispatch-act
- [職業安定法 / Employment Security Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/employment-security-act): 昭和二十二年法律第百四十一号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-04-01 · 118 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. How people find work and employers find workers: free job placement by public employment security offices (公共職業安定所), and rules that keep private placement agencies, recruitment, job-information services and worker supply properly run, so that each person has the chance of a job suited to their abilities and industry gets the workers it needs. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/employment-security-act
- [労働関係調整法 / Labor Relations Adjustment Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-relations-adjustment-act): 昭和二十一年法律第二十五号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2016-04-01 · 54 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. How collective labor disputes between employers and workers are prevented and settled: the parties' own duty to settle, help from the Labour Relations Commissions (労働委員会), and limits on strikes and other acts of dispute. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/labor-relations-adjustment-act
- [労働組合法 / Labor Union Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-union-act): 昭和二十四年法律第百七十四号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-24 · 91 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The protection of workers' freedom to form labor unions and bargain collectively with employers, with immunity for justifiable union action such as strikes; the unfair labor practices employers must not commit; and the collective agreements unions sign with employers or their organizations. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/labor-union-act
- [個別労働関係紛争の解決の促進に関する法律 / Act on Promoting the Resolution of Individual Labor-Related Disputes](https://japanlaw.org/en/individual-labor-disputes-act): 平成十三年法律第百十二号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 22 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. How the state helps settle a dispute between an individual worker and an employer — or between a job seeker and an employer over recruitment and hiring — promptly and properly, in line with its actual circumstances: information and consultation, advice and guidance from the Director of the Prefectural Labour Bureau, and, except for recruitment and hiring, mediation (あっせん) by a Dispute Coordinating Committee. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/individual-labor-disputes-act
- [労働審判法 / Labor Tribunal Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-tribunal-act): 平成十六年法律第四十五号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-21 · 36 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. A quick procedure in the district court for a civil dispute between an individual worker and an employer over whether a labor contract exists or another matter of their working relationship: on a party's petition, a panel of one judge and two people with expert knowledge of labor relations tries mediation where a settlement looks possible and, if the dispute is not resolved that way, decides it. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/labor-tribunal-act
- [労働安全衛生法 / Industrial Safety and Health Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/industrial-safety-and-health-act): 昭和四十七年法律第五十七号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 211 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Safety and health at work: what employers must do to prevent workers being injured, falling ill or dying because of their work — the safety and health staff and committees a workplace needs, measures against hazards and medical checkups — and controls on making and supplying machines and chemicals. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/industrial-safety-and-health-act
- [社会保険労務士法 / Act on Public Consultants on Social and Labour Insurance](https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-and-social-security-attorney-act): 昭和四十三年法律第八十九号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 130 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The profession of the labor and social security attorney (社会保険労務士) — the "public consultant on social and labour insurance" of this Act's English title — who handles papers and gives advice under Japan's labor and social insurance Acts: what the labor and social security attorney may do, how one qualifies and registers, their duties and discipline, and their corporations and associations. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/labor-and-social-security-attorney-act
- [女性の職業生活における活躍の推進に関する法律 / Act on the Promotion of Women's Active Engagement in Professional Life](https://japanlaw.org/en/womens-engagement-act): 平成二十七年法律第六十四号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 39 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. What employers and the national and local governments must do so that women who work, or want to, can use their abilities fully at work: action plans with goals in figures, published figures on women at work such as the gender pay gap, and certification for employers that do well. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/womens-engagement-act
- [次世代育成支援対策推進法 / Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children](https://japanlaw.org/en/next-generation-support-act): 平成十五年法律第百二十号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 32 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Measures to help children be born and raised in good health as Japan's birth rate falls fast, chiefly through action plans by local governments and by employers, including plans that help workers balance their working and family lives. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/next-generation-support-act
- [公益通報者保護法 / Whistleblower Protection Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/whistleblower-protection-act): 平成十六年法律第百二十二号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-11-02 · 22 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Protects people who report wrongdoing under certain laws at the business they work for — workers, dispatched workers and company officers among them — from dismissal and other disadvantageous treatment for reporting, and sets what businesses and administrative bodies must do with such reports. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/whistleblower-protection-act

## [Visas, residence and nationality (在留・国籍)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/immigration)

- [出入国管理及び難民認定法 / Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/immigration-control-act): 昭和二十六年政令第三百十九号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 316 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules for entering and leaving Japan, for how foreign nationals live here under a status of residence (在留資格), for deporting them, and for recognising refugees. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/immigration-control-act
- [出入国管理及び難民認定法施行規則 / Regulation for Enforcement of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/immigration-control-act-enforcement-regulation): 昭和五十六年法務省令第五十四号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 217 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Ministry of Justice Order (法務省令) that fills in the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act: how long each status of residence (在留資格) is granted for, the forms and documents each application takes, what residents and the organizations that accept them must report, and how officials carry out landing, revocation, deportation, detention and refugee procedures. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/immigration-control-act-enforcement-regulation
- [出入国管理及び難民認定法施行令 / Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Enforcement Order](https://japanlaw.org/en/immigration-control-act-enforcement-order): 平成十年政令第百七十八号 · Cabinet Order (政令) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 30 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Cabinet Order (政令) that settles matters the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act leaves to a Cabinet Order, among them the fees for immigration permissions, cards and certificates, the specified residence card included; the fee for registering a registered support organization and the labor-law offences that bar registration; which regions' travel documents count as passports; how municipal offices pass residence reports and changes to foreign residents' resident records on to the Immigration Services Agency; the public sale and return of seized articles; how detainees' requests and reports are handled; and which of the Minister of Justice's powers pass to the Commissioner of the Immigration Services Agency. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/immigration-control-act-enforcement-order
- [国籍法 / Nationality Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/nationality-act): 昭和二十五年法律第百四十七号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 21 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Who is a Japanese citizen: how Japanese citizenship is acquired — by birth, through a parent's acknowledgment (認知) of a child, or by naturalization (帰化) — and when a Japanese citizen who also holds another nationality must choose between them, or loses Japanese citizenship. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/nationality-act
- [国籍法施行規則 / Enforcement Regulation of the Nationality Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/nationality-act-enforcement-regulation): 昭和五十九年法務省令第三十九号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2016-04-01 · 7 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Ministry of Justice Order (法務省令) made under Article 19 of the Nationality Act that sets out how notifications to acquire or renounce Japanese nationality and applications for permission to naturalize (帰化) are made — through which office, in person and in writing, with which documents — and how two notices under that Act can reach a person who is abroad. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/nationality-act-enforcement-regulation
- [旅券法 / Passport Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/passport-act): 昭和二十六年法律第二百六十七号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-07-17 · 33 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules on passports: how one is applied for and issued, how long it is valid, when it can be refused, called back or stop being valid, and the penalties for misusing one. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/passport-act
- [日本国との平和条約に基づき日本の国籍を離脱した者等の出入国管理に関する特例法 / Special Act on the Immigration Control of, inter alia, those who have lost Japanese Nationality pursuant to the Treaty of Peace with Japan](https://japanlaw.org/en/special-act-on-immigration-control): 平成三年法律第七十一号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-14 · 37 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Special rules, set apart from the Immigration Control Act, for people who lost Japanese nationality under the Treaty of Peace with Japan while living in Japan, and their descendants born and living in Japan: their status as special permanent residents (特別永住者), the special permanent resident certificate (特別永住者証明書) they hold, and the narrower grounds on which they can be deported. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/special-act-on-immigration-control
- [日本国との平和条約に基づき日本の国籍を離脱した者等の出入国管理に関する特例法施行令 / Order for Enforcement of the Special Act on the Immigration Control of, Inter Alia, Those Who Have Lost Japanese Nationality Pursuant to the Treaty of Peace with Japan](https://japanlaw.org/en/special-act-on-immigration-control-enforcement-order): 平成二十三年政令第四百二十号 · Cabinet Order (政令) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 10 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Cabinet Order (政令) under the Special Act on the Immigration Control of, Inter Alia, Those Who Have Lost Japanese Nationality Pursuant to the Treaty of Peace with Japan that sets what municipal offices do when they hand out special permanent resident certificates (特別永住者証明書) and take special permanent residents' notifications and applications, and the fees for exchanging a certificate or getting one that also works as an Individual Number Card (個人番号カード). Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/special-act-on-immigration-control-enforcement-order
- [日本国との平和条約に基づき日本の国籍を離脱した者等の出入国管理に関する特例法施行規則 / Regulation for Enforcement of the Special Act on the Immigration Control of Inter Alia, Those Who Have Lost Japanese Nationality Pursuant to the Treaty of Peace with Japan](https://japanlaw.org/en/special-act-on-immigration-control-enforcement-regulation): 平成二十三年法務省令第四十四号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2026-06-14 · 24 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Ministry of Justice Order (法務省令) under the Special Act on the Immigration Control of, Inter Alia, Those Who Have Lost Japanese Nationality Pursuant to the Treaty of Peace with Japan that sets the forms, photographs and documents for the special permission for permanent residence (特別永住許可) and for each notification and application about the special permanent resident certificate (特別永住者証明書), how the certificate is written, who may act for a special permanent resident, and which special permanent residents need a full re-entry permit (再入国の許可). Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/special-act-on-immigration-control-enforcement-regulation
- [外国人の技能実習の適正な実施及び技能実習生の保護に関する法律 / Act on Proper Technical Intern Training and Protection of Technical Intern Trainees](https://japanlaw.org/en/technical-intern-training-act): 平成二十八年法律第八十九号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 115 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules under which a person or company in Japan takes on foreign nationals to acquire skills by working for it under a plan the government accredits, the licensed non-profit bodies that arrange and oversee that work, and the protections those foreign nationals have. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/technical-intern-training-act
- [出入国管理及び難民認定法別表第一の二の表の高度専門職の項の下欄の基準を定める省令 / Ministerial Order for Defining the Criteria in the Right-Hand Column of the Entry for Highly Skilled Professional in the Appended Table I(2) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/highly-skilled-professional-criteria-ordinance): 平成二十六年法務省令第三十七号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2024-06-10 · 2 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Ministry of Justice Order (法務省令) that sets the criteria for the status of residence Highly Skilled Professional (高度専門職): the points tables in which a foreign national must score 70 points or more for item (i), and what a holder of item (i) must meet to move on to item (ii). Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/highly-skilled-professional-criteria-ordinance
- [出入国管理及び難民認定法第七条第一項第二号の基準を定める省令 / Ministerial Order to Provide for Criteria Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph (1), Item (ii) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/landing-criteria-ordinance): 平成二年法務省令第十六号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2026-04-01 · main text not divided into articles · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Ministry of Justice Order (法務省令) that sets, status by status, the criteria a foreign national's intended work or study in Japan must meet before they may land — degrees, experience, pay, business size, age, language ability and the like. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/landing-criteria-ordinance
- [出入国管理及び難民認定法第二十条の二第二項の基準を定める省令 / Ministerial Order to Provide for Criteria Pursuant to Article 20-2, Paragraph (2) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/highly-skilled-professional-ii-criteria-ordinance): 平成二十一年法務省令第五十一号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2017-11-01 · main text not divided into articles · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Ministry of Justice Order (法務省令) that sets the criteria a foreign national must meet to be permitted to change their status of residence to Highly Skilled Professional (ii) (高度専門職2号). Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/highly-skilled-professional-ii-criteria-ordinance
- [出入国管理及び難民認定法別表第一の二の表の特定技能の項の下欄に規定する産業上の分野等を定める省令 / Ministerial Order to Provide for the Industrial Fields Specified in the Right-Hand Column of "Specified Skilled Worker" in the Appended Table I (2) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/specified-skilled-worker-fields-ordinance): 平成三十一年法務省令第六号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2026-04-01 · main text not divided into articles · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Ministry of Justice Order (法務省令) that names the industrial fields in which foreign nationals may work on the status of residence Specified Skilled Worker (特定技能) — nineteen for item (i), eleven of them also for item (ii) — and ties the skill level each item requires to the field-specific operation policies. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/specified-skilled-worker-fields-ordinance
- [出入国管理及び難民認定法第二条第五号ロの旅券を所持する外国人の上陸申請の特例に関する法律 / Act on Special Measures concerning the Application for Landing by Foreign National in Possession of Passport specified in Article 2, Item (v), (b) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/landing-application-special-measures-act): 平成十七年法律第九十六号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-05 · main text not divided into articles · English: 100% of paragraphs. An Act (法律) that lets visitors holding a passport issued by the authorities of a region, rather than of a government Japan recognises, land in Japan without a visa for a short stay such as tourism, where they belong to the class a Cabinet Order (政令) sets. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/landing-application-special-measures-act
- [出入国管理及び難民認定法第二条第五号ロの旅券を所持する外国人の上陸申請の特例に関する法律施行令 / Order for Enforcement of the Act on Special Measures concerning the Application for Landing by Foreign National in Possession of Passport Specified in Article 2, Item (v), (b) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/landing-application-special-measures-act-enforcement-order): 平成十七年政令第三百二号 · Cabinet Order (政令) · text in force since 2005-09-26 · main text not divided into articles · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Cabinet Order (政令) that names who benefits from the visa waiver of Act No. 96 of 2005: residents of Taiwan who hold a passport issued by Taiwan's competent authority and intend to do the activities of a Temporary Visitor (短期滞在) in Japan. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/landing-application-special-measures-act-enforcement-order
- [特定在留カードの交付の申請に関する規則 / Rules on Applications for the Issuance of Specified Residence Cards](https://japanlaw.org/en/specified-residence-card-application-rules): 令和八年総務省・法務省令第一号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2026-06-14 · 2 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. How a mid- to long-term resident applies for a specified residence card (特定在留カード), a residence card to which the functions of an Individual Number Card (個人番号カード) have been added, either at a regional immigration services bureau or through the municipal office. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/specified-residence-card-application-rules
- [特定在留カードの様式その他特定在留カードに関し必要な事項を定める命令 / Order to Provide for the Form of Specified Residence Cards and Other Necessary Matters Concerning Specified Residence Cards](https://japanlaw.org/en/specified-residence-card-form-order): 令和八年デジタル庁・総務省・法務省令第一号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2026-06-14 · 4 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The form of the specified residence card (特定在留カード), a residence card that also works as an Individual Number Card (個人番号カード), together with its PIN, the documents a person collecting it for someone else must show, and how long it is valid as an Individual Number Card. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/specified-residence-card-form-order
- [出入国管理及び難民認定法施行令第二条等に規定する伝達の方法等を定める省令 / Ministerial Order to Provide for the Method of Relay, etc. Prescribed in Article 2, etc. of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Enforcement Order](https://japanlaw.org/en/immigration-control-order-transmission-ordinance): 平成二十四年法務省令第二十五号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2019-04-01 · 2 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Ministry of Justice Order (法務省令) that sets how mayors send the Commissioner of the Immigration Services Agency (出入国在留管理庁長官) what foreign residents notify at the municipal office: by the Commissioner's computer link, or on a disk or paper only when the link cannot be used. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/immigration-control-order-transmission-ordinance
- [住民基本台帳法施行令第三十条の二十及び出入国管理及び難民認定法施行令第二十四条第三項に規定する通知の方法を定める省令 / Ministerial Order to Provide for the Method of Notification Prescribed in Article 30-20 of the Order for the Enforcement of the Residential Basic Book Act and Article 24, Paragraph (3) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Enforcement Order](https://japanlaw.org/en/resident-registry-immigration-notification-ordinance): 平成二十四年総務省・法務省令第一号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2024-06-10 · 2 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Ministerial Order (省令) made jointly under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of Justice that sets how the Commissioner of the Immigration Services Agency (出入国在留管理庁長官) and municipal mayors send each other the notices that keep foreign residents' resident records (住民票) in step with immigration records. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/resident-registry-immigration-notification-ordinance
- [出入国管理及び難民認定法第五十五条の十七第一項の規定による医師等職員の兼業等に関する規則 / Rules on Outside Work, etc. of Physicians and Dentists on Staff under Article 55-17, Paragraph (1) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/immigration-medical-staff-side-work-rules): 令和六年内閣官房・法務省令第二号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2024-06-10 · 4 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. When a physician or dentist on the staff of an immigration detention center or a regional immigration services bureau may be approved to practise medicine outside the service (部外診療): the facilities that count, the conditions for approval, the written application and the register of approvals. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/immigration-medical-staff-side-work-rules
- [地方出入国在留管理局組織規則 / Rules for Organization of Regional Immigration Services Bureaus](https://japanlaw.org/en/regional-immigration-services-bureau-organization-rules): 平成三十一年法務省令第二十七号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2026-06-14 · 31 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. How the regional immigration services bureaus are organised inside: their divisions, the officials who handle immigration inspection and enforcement work and how that work is divided, and their district offices (支局) and branch offices (出張所). Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/regional-immigration-services-bureau-organization-rules
- [出入国管理及び難民認定法及び日本国との平和条約に基づき日本の国籍を離脱した者等の出入国管理に関する特例法の一部を改正する等の法律の施行に伴う関係政令の整備及び経過措置に関する政令 / Cabinet Order on the Arrangement of Related Cabinet Orders and on Transitional Measures upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act and the Special Act on the Immigration Control of, Inter Alia, Those Who Have Lost Japanese Nationality Pursuant to the Treaty of Peace with Japan, and Other Matters](https://japanlaw.org/en/immigration-2009-amendment-transitional-order): 平成二十三年政令第四百二十一号 · Cabinet Order (政令) · text in force since 2019-04-01 · 12 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Cabinet Order (政令) made to put into effect Act No. 79 of 2009, which repealed the Alien Registration Act (外国人登録法), of which the text held here is only Chapter 2, its transitional measures (経過措置): what municipal offices did, and in a few cases still do, with applications, residence notifications and certificates as alien registration certificates gave way to residence cards (在留カード) and special permanent resident certificates (特別永住者証明書). Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/immigration-2009-amendment-transitional-order
- [出入国管理及び難民認定法及び日本国との平和条約に基づき日本の国籍を離脱した者等の出入国管理に関する特例法の一部を改正する等の法律の施行に伴う法務省関係省令の整備及び経過措置に関する省令 / Ministerial Order on the Arrangement of Ministerial Orders Related to the Ministry of Justice and on Transitional Measures upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act and the Special Act on the Immigration Control of, Inter Alia, Those Who Have Lost Japanese Nationality Pursuant to the Treaty of Peace with Japan, and Other Matters](https://japanlaw.org/en/immigration-2009-amendment-transitional-ordinance): 平成二十三年法務省令第四十三号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2020-12-28 · 14 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Ministry of Justice Order (法務省令) made to carry out Act No. 79 of 2009, which repealed the Alien Registration Act (外国人登録法), of which the text held here is only Chapter 2, its transitional measures (経過措置): the passport stamp promising a residence card (在留カード) later to a new arrival who cannot be given one at the port, and the forms, documents and stand-ins for the applications and notifications by which registered foreign nationals moved from alien registration certificates to residence cards and special permanent resident certificates (特別永住者証明書). Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/immigration-2009-amendment-transitional-ordinance
- [出入国管理及び難民認定法及び外国人の技能実習の適正な実施及び技能実習生の保護に関する法律の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係政令の整備及び経過措置に関する政令 / Cabinet Order on the Arrangement of Related Cabinet Orders and on Transitional Measures upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act and the Act on Proper Technical Intern Training and Protection of Technical Intern Trainees](https://japanlaw.org/en/skill-development-amendment-transitional-order): 令和七年政令第三百四十一号 · Cabinet Order (政令) · text in force since 2026-05-13 · 1 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The transitional measures (経過措置) of the Cabinet Order made for the 2024 amending Act (Act No. 60 of 2024) that turns technical intern training into employment for skill development (育成就労); they are the only part of the Order's text held here. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/skill-development-amendment-transitional-order
- [出入国管理及び難民認定法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係政令の整備等及び経過措置に関する政令 / Cabinet Order on the Arrangement, etc. of Related Cabinet Orders and on Transitional Measures upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, etc.](https://japanlaw.org/en/immigration-2024-amendment-transitional-order): 令和七年政令第四百二十三号 · Cabinet Order (政令) · text in force since 2026-06-14 · 2 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The transitional measures (経過措置) of the Cabinet Order made for the 2024 amending Act (Act No. 59 of 2024) that brought in the specified residence card (特定在留カード) and the specified special permanent resident certificate (特定特別永住者証明書): they spare people who held a card, or had applied, before the change the fee for the new card in some cases, and are the only part of the Order's text held here. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/immigration-2024-amendment-transitional-order
- [住民基本台帳法 / Residential Basic Book Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/residential-basic-book-act): 昭和四十二年法律第八十一号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-24 · 143 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Sets up the Basic Resident Register (住民基本台帳) that each municipality keeps of the people living in it, the notifications residents must make when they move, and who may see the records or get copies of them. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/residential-basic-book-act
- [住民基本台帳法施行令 / Order for the Enforcement of the Residential Basic Book Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/residential-basic-book-act-enforcement-order): 昭和四十二年政令第二百九十二号 · Cabinet Order (政令) · text in force since 2026-10-24 · 83 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The Order for the Enforcement of the Residential Basic Book Act is the Cabinet Order (政令) that fills in the details the Residential Basic Book Act (住民基本台帳法) leaves to it: what else a certificate of residence (住民票) shows, how mayors make and correct it, what people must state or attach when they notify a move, and how long the records are kept. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/residential-basic-book-act-enforcement-order
- [行政手続における特定の個人を識別するための番号の利用等に関する法律 / Act on the Use of Numbers to Identify a Specific Individual in Administrative Procedures](https://japanlaw.org/en/my-number-act): 平成二十五年法律第二十七号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 87 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The individual number (個人番号) given to each person on a municipal resident register, the Individual Number Card (個人番号カード) that proves it, and the limits on who may use, ask for, share and keep the number, which public bodies use in social security, tax, disaster response and other areas of administration. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/my-number-act
- [戸籍法 / Family Register Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/family-register-act): 昭和二十二年法律第二百二十四号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-09-03 · 171 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Sets up the family register (戸籍) — the record, kept by each municipality's mayor, of each person's name, date of birth, parents, marriage and other family relationships, from which anyone who loses Japanese nationality is removed — and the notifications (届出) that keep it up to date. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/family-register-act

## [Tax (税)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/tax)

- [所得税法 / Income Tax Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/income-tax-act): 昭和四十年法律第三十三号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 302 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Japan's national income tax: who pays it and on which income, how it is worked out, how it is filed and paid, and the tax that employers and other payers must withhold from what they pay. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/income-tax-act
- [所得税法施行規則 / Regulation for Enforcement of the Income Tax Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/income-tax-act-enforcement-regulation): 昭和四十年大蔵省令第十一号 · Ministerial Order (省令) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 251 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. A Ministerial Order (省令) of the Ministry of Finance that carries out the Income Tax Act (所得税法) and that Act's Cabinet Order (政令), the Order for Enforcement of the Income Tax Act (所得税法施行令): it fixes the particulars, attached documents, forms and record-keeping that they leave to a Ministry of Finance Order (財務省令). Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/income-tax-act-enforcement-regulation
- [法人税法 / Corporation Tax Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/corporation-tax-act): 昭和四十年法律第三十四号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 262 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Japan's national corporation tax: which companies and other bodies pay it, how their taxable income is worked out from their accounts, the rates, and how they file returns and pay. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/corporation-tax-act
- [国税通則法 / Act on General Rules for National Taxes](https://japanlaw.org/en/national-tax-general-rules-act): 昭和三十七年法律第六十六号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-11-01 · 194 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules shared by most taxes the State imposes (national taxes, 国税): how the tax owed is fixed and paid, the extra taxes for filing or paying late or short, tax inquiries, appeals against the tax authorities, and the investigation of tax crimes. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/national-tax-general-rules-act
- [国税徴収法 / National Tax Collection Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/national-tax-collection-act): 昭和三十四年法律第百四十七号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-25 · 173 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. How the State collects national taxes that are not paid on time: how the tax ranks against other debts, who else can be made to pay it, and how a tax office seizes and sells a delinquent taxpayer's property. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/national-tax-collection-act
- [東日本大震災からの復興のための施策を実施するために必要な財源の確保に関する特別措置法 / Act on Special Measures for Securing the Financial Resources Necessary to Implement Measures for Reconstruction following the Great East Japan Earthquake](https://japanlaw.org/en/reconstruction-funding-act): 平成二十三年法律第百十七号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-04-01 · 78 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. It pays for rebuilding after the Great East Japan Earthquake (東日本大震災) — the earthquake of 11 March 2011 and the nuclear power plant accident that followed — by creating a special income tax and a special corporate tax for reconstruction, letting the Government issue bonds for it, and putting money from government accounts and the sale of government-held shares towards it. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/reconstruction-funding-act
- [租税特別措置法 / Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation](https://japanlaw.org/en/special-taxation-measures-act): 昭和三十二年法律第二十六号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-11-01 · 496 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The exceptions, for the time being, to Japan's main tax Acts: taxes lowered, exempted or refunded, and other rules on who owes a tax and how it is worked out, filed and collected. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/special-taxation-measures-act
- [相続税法 / Inheritance Tax Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/inheritance-tax-act): 昭和二十五年法律第七十三号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-04-01 · 110 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Japan's inheritance tax and gift tax: who pays them and on what property, how each is worked out, and how it is filed and paid, including in instalments or by handing over property. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/inheritance-tax-act
- [消費税法 / Consumption Tax Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/consumption-tax-act): 昭和六十三年法律第百八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-11-01 · 85 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Japan's national consumption tax: which transactions it taxes, which businesses must pay it and which are exempt, how the tax is worked out with a credit for the tax on purchases backed by qualified invoices, and how it is filed and paid. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/consumption-tax-act
- [地方税法 / Local Tax Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/local-tax-act): 昭和二十五年法律第二百二十六号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-11-01 · 1348 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The framework under which prefectures and municipalities levy their own taxes by local ordinance — residents' tax, fixed assets tax, enterprise tax, the vehicle taxes and others — with the common rules for assessing, collecting and appealing them. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/local-tax-act
- [印紙税法 / Stamp Tax Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/stamp-tax-act): 昭和四十二年法律第二十三号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 24 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Japan's stamp tax (印紙税): the tax on making the written contracts, bills, certificates, receipts, passbooks and other documents its Appended Table 1 (別表第一) lists, owed by whoever makes the document and as a rule paid by sticking revenue stamps (印紙) on it. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/stamp-tax-act

## [Pensions, insurance and welfare (社会保障)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/social-security)

- [国民年金法 / National Pension Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/national-pension-act): 昭和三十四年法律第百四十一号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 267 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Japan's national pension (国民年金): who is insured — people living in Japan from 20 to 59, everyone in the Employees' Pension Insurance, and their dependent spouses aged 20 to 59 — what category 1 insured persons pay, and the basic pensions it pays in old age, on disability and on a death. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/national-pension-act
- [国民年金法施行令 / Order for Enforcement of the National Pension Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/national-pension-act-enforcement-order): 昭和三十四年政令第百八十四号 · Cabinet Order (政令) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 114 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The Cabinet Order (政令) under the National Pension Act (国民年金法) that fills in what the Act leaves to a Cabinet Order: the disability grades, the income limits for waiving premiums and for the disability basic pension of someone first seen by a doctor before 20, the rates by which an old-age basic pension claimed early is reduced or one deferred is increased, the multipliers of the lump-sum withdrawal payment, and which bodies do which part of the work. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/national-pension-act-enforcement-order
- [厚生年金保険法 / Employees' Pension Insurance Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/employees-pension-insurance-act): 昭和二十九年法律第百十五号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 221 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Japan's employees' pension insurance (厚生年金保険): which workplaces must join, who is insured — employees under 70 at those workplaces, public employees and private school staff included, apart from those Article 12 leaves out, such as day, short-term and seasonal workers and some part-time workers — the contributions employer and employee share on standardized pay and bonuses, and the old-age, disability and survivors' benefits it pays. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/employees-pension-insurance-act
- [確定拠出年金法 / Defined Contribution Pension Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/defined-contribution-pension-act): 平成十三年法律第八十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-04-01 · 147 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Japan's defined contribution pensions (確定拠出年金): money an employer or the person pays in is invested on the person's own instructions and paid out as benefits in old age, through a corporate-type pension plan (企業型年金) an employer runs or the individual-type pension plan (個人型年金). Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/defined-contribution-pension-act
- [労働者災害補償保険法 / Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/industrial-accident-insurance-act): 昭和二十二年法律第五十号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-07-17 · 98 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The government-run insurance that pays benefits to workers injured, made ill, disabled or killed through their work or on their way to and from work, and to their families, and helps them return to working life. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/industrial-accident-insurance-act
- [雇用保険法 / Employment Insurance Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/employment-insurance-act): 昭和四十九年法律第百十六号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-13 · 120 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Japan's public employment insurance (雇用保険): money for workers who lose their job, take training, earn less after 60, take leave to care for family or bring up a child, or work shorter hours for a child, and programs the government can run to keep people in work — grants to employers who keep workers on, help departing workers find new jobs, or hire — and to develop workers' skills, paid for mainly by premiums and the state. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/employment-insurance-act
- [労働保険の保険料の徴収等に関する法律 / Act on the Collection, etc. of Insurance Premiums of Labor Insurance](https://japanlaw.org/en/labor-insurance-premium-collection-act): 昭和四十四年法律第八十四号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-10-01 · 54 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. How employers pay for industrial accident insurance and employment insurance (together, labor insurance): when the insurance relationship with a business begins and ends, how the premiums are worked out, paid and collected, and the associations that may handle this work for employers with few workers. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/labor-insurance-premium-collection-act
- [健康保険法 / Health Insurance Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/health-insurance-act): 大正十一年法律第七十号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 323 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Health insurance for employees and their dependents: it pays for medical treatment and gives cash benefits for illness, injury, childbirth and death not caused by work, funded by premiums that employers and employees generally share half and half, with the national treasury bearing, within its budget each year, the cost of administering the scheme and subsidizing part of the Association's benefits. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/health-insurance-act
- [国民健康保険法 / National Health Insurance Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/national-health-insurance-act): 昭和三十三年法律第百九十二号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 190 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Health insurance for people with an address in Japan whom Article 6 does not leave out, chiefly because employee health insurance or another scheme it lists covers them: the prefecture with its municipalities, and National Health Insurance Societies (国民健康保険組合), give insurance benefits for illness, injury, childbirth and death, met from premiums collected from heads of household (世帯主) and society members and from shares the State and the prefecture bear. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/national-health-insurance-act
- [介護保険法 / Long-Term Care Insurance Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/long-term-care-insurance-act): 平成九年法律第百二十三号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 405 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Long-term care insurance, run by each municipality: who is insured from the age of 40, how premiums are paid, how a need for care or support is certified, and the care services the insurance pays for. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/long-term-care-insurance-act
- [高齢者の医療の確保に関する法律 / Act on Assurance of Medical Care for Elderly People](https://japanlaw.org/en/elderly-medical-care-act): 昭和五十七年法律第八十号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 202 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Health insurance for people 75 and over with an address (住所) in Japan, and for people 65 to 74 there whom their association certifies as disabled, other than members of a household on public assistance and others a Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Order excludes, run in each prefecture by an association of all its municipalities (後期高齢者医療広域連合) — together with the duty of every medical insurer to give its members aged 40 and over checkups for lifestyle diseases, the plans for keeping medical spending appropriate (医療費適正化計画), and the payments that share the cost of older people's medical care among insurers. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/elderly-medical-care-act
- [児童手当法 / Child Allowance Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/child-allowance-act): 昭和四十六年法律第七十三号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 34 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The child allowance (児童手当): a monthly payment to the people raising children, to steady family life and help children grow up healthy. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/child-allowance-act
- [児童扶養手当法 / Child Rearing Allowance Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/child-rearing-allowance-act): 昭和三十六年法律第二百三十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 45 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The Child Rearing Allowance (児童扶養手当): a monthly payment for a child who does not share a livelihood with one of their parents, to steady the life of the family raising the child, help it become self-reliant and further the child's welfare. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/child-rearing-allowance-act
- [生活保護法 / Public Assistance Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/public-assistance-act): 昭和二十五年法律第百四十四号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 126 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Public assistance from the State to all citizens (国民) living in poverty, according to how great their need is, to guarantee them a minimum standard of living and help them become self-supporting. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/public-assistance-act
- [医師法 / Medical Practitioners' Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-practitioners-act): 昭和二十三年法律第二百一号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-21 · 52 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Who may practise medicine in Japan and on what terms: the national examination and licence for doctors (医師), clinical training of at least two years, the duties doctors owe their patients, and the discipline and penalties behind them. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/medical-practitioners-act
- [医療法 / Medical Care Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-care-act): 昭和二十三年法律第二百五号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 321 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules for hospitals, clinics and birthing centers: what each is, how one is opened and managed, what patients are told, the safety of care, the prefectures' medical care plans, and medical corporations. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/medical-care-act

## [Business and companies (会社・取引)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/business)

- [会社法 / Companies Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/companies-act): 平成十七年法律第八十六号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-08-12 · 1078 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules for forming, organising, running and managing companies: the four kinds of company, their shareholders or members, their directors and other officers, their accounts, and how they merge, split and dissolve. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/companies-act
- [商法 / Commercial Code](https://japanlaw.org/en/commercial-code): 明治三十二年法律第四十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-24 · 264 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Japan's general law of commerce: who counts as a merchant and the rules for their trade names, books and staff; the rules for commercial transactions, from sales between merchants to carriage and warehousing; and the law of ships and carriage by sea. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/commercial-code
- [金融商品取引法 / Financial Instruments and Exchange Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/financial-instruments-and-exchange-act): 昭和二十三年法律第二十五号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-08-12 · 1101 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules of Japan's markets in securities and derivatives: what a company raising money from investors or listed on an exchange must disclose, who may run an investment business and how it must treat customers, and the bans on insider trading, market manipulation and fraud. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/financial-instruments-and-exchange-act
- [銀行法 / Banking Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/banking-act): 昭和五十六年法律第五十九号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-08-12 · 271 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Who may carry on banking (銀行業) in Japan, and how banks, their major shareholders, their agents and the electronic payment businesses that work with them are licensed, authorised or registered and supervised, so that banking stays sound and depositors (預金者等) are protected. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/banking-act
- [資金決済に関する法律 / Payment Services Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/payment-services-act): 平成二十一年法律第五十九号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-08-12 · 231 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Sets registration, notification and supervision rules, to protect users and keep payments safe, efficient and convenient, for issuers of prepaid payment instruments, non-bank funds transfer services, dealers in electronic payment instruments, cryptoasset exchanges (until Act No. 64 of 2026 takes them out of this Act), businesses that analyse banks' funds transfers, and organizations that clear funds-transfer debts between banks. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/payment-services-act
- [外国為替及び外国貿易法 / Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/foreign-exchange-and-foreign-trade-act): 昭和二十四年法律第二百二十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-08-12 · 85 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Japan's rules for money, investment and trade that cross its borders: free in principle, with the minimum necessary controls on payments, capital transactions, investment out of and into Japan, and exports and imports. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/foreign-exchange-and-foreign-trade-act
- [不正競争防止法 / Unfair Competition Prevention Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/unfair-competition-prevention-act): 平成五年法律第四十七号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-21 · 45 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Fair competition between businesses: it lets a business stop, and claim damages for, acts such as copying another's well-known name or product, taking trade secrets or misleading labelling, punishes the worst of them, and bans bribing foreign public officials. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/unfair-competition-prevention-act
- [私的独占の禁止及び公正取引の確保に関する法律 / Act on Prohibition of Private Monopolization and Maintenance of Fair Trade](https://japanlaw.org/en/antimonopoly-act): 昭和二十二年法律第五十四号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-21 · 178 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Fair and free competition between enterprises: no private monopolization, no unreasonable restraint of trade (acting in concert with other enterprises to fix prices or otherwise restrict their business activities, so substantially restraining competition), no unfair trade practices, and no mergers or share acquisitions that would substantially restrain competition, all enforced by the Japan Fair Trade Commission. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/antimonopoly-act
- [製造委託等に係る中小受託事業者に対する代金の支払の遅延等の防止に関する法律 / Act on Preventing Delay in Payment to Small and Medium-Sized Entrusted Business Operators in Relation to Manufacturing Consignment](https://japanlaw.org/en/small-contractor-payment-act): 昭和三十一年法律第百二十号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-01-01 · 16 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Fair dealing for smaller businesses that make, repair, create or transport things or provide services for a larger business — terms stated at once, payment within 60 days, and a list of acts the larger business must not do; until the amendment in force from 1 January 2026, the Act was titled 下請代金支払遅延等防止法 (the Act against Delay in Payment of Subcontract Proceeds, etc. to Subcontractors). Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/small-contractor-payment-act
- [古物営業法 / Secondhand Goods Business Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/secondhand-goods-business-act): 昭和二十四年法律第百八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 48 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Who needs a permit to deal in secondhand goods (古物) as a business, and what dealers must do — check who they buy from, keep records, report goods they suspect — so that stolen goods are not traded and are found quickly. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/secondhand-goods-business-act
- [著作権法 / Copyright Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/copyright-act): 昭和四十五年法律第四十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-24 · 239 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Who holds rights in creative works and in performances, phonograms and broadcasts, what those rights cover and how long they last, when others may use works without permission, and how infringement is stopped, compensated and punished. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/copyright-act
- [旅館業法 / Hotel Business Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/hotel-business-act): 昭和二十三年法律第百三十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 22 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The licence (許可) needed to run a business that lodges people for a fee — a hotel or inn, shared lodgings or a boarding house — and the rules its operator follows on hygiene, the guest register, infectious diseases and refusing guests. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/hotel-business-act
- [温泉法 / Hot Spring Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/hot-spring-act): 昭和二十三年法律第百二十五号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 55 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. It protects hot springs, guards against disasters caused by the flammable natural gas that comes up when they are drilled for or extracted, and governs their use for public bathing and drinking, mainly through permission from the prefectural governor. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/hot-spring-act
- [電気工事士法 / Electricians Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/electricians-act): 昭和三十五年法律第百三十九号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 37 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Who may do electrical work (電気工事) on electrical installations, and what they must do while working, so that faulty electrical work does not lead to disasters. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/electricians-act

## [Consumers and personal data (消費者・個人情報)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/consumers)

- [消費者契約法 / Consumer Contract Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/consumer-contract-act): 平成十二年法律第六十一号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-24 · 61 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Protects consumers in their contracts with businesses: a consumer can rescind (取り消す) their agreement to a contract they were misled or pressured into, contract terms that free a business from liability or otherwise unfairly harm consumers are void (無効), and qualified consumer organizations (適格消費者団体) can demand that businesses stop such practices. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/consumer-contract-act
- [特定商取引に関する法律 / Act on Specified Commercial Transactions](https://japanlaw.org/en/specified-commercial-transactions-act): 昭和五十一年法律第五十七号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-08-12 · 157 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Makes seven kinds of trade fair — door-to-door sales (訪問販売), mail order sales (通信販売), telemarketing sales (電話勧誘販売), multilevel marketing (連鎖販売取引), specified continuous services (特定継続的役務提供), business opportunity sales (業務提供誘引販売取引) and door-to-door purchases (訪問購入) — and protects the customers of these businesses from harm. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/specified-commercial-transactions-act
- [不当景品類及び不当表示防止法 / Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations](https://japanlaw.org/en/premiums-and-representations-act): 昭和三十七年法律第百三十四号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-21 · 52 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. It protects consumers by limiting the premiums (goods, money and other benefits offered with a deal) and banning the misleading advertisements and other representations that businesses use to draw customers unfairly and that are likely to hinder consumers' free and rational choice. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/premiums-and-representations-act
- [特定電子メールの送信の適正化等に関する法律 / Act on Regulation of Transmission of Specified Electronic Mail](https://japanlaw.org/en/specified-electronic-mail-act): 平成十四年法律第二十六号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 38 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules for businesses that send advertising email: mail only people who consented or otherwise fall within the Act's list, stop when asked, show who is sending, never fake the sender's details, and never mail made-up addresses to send in bulk. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/specified-electronic-mail-act
- [個人情報の保護に関する法律 / Act on the Protection of Personal Information](https://japanlaw.org/en/personal-information-protection-act): 平成十五年法律第五十七号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-11-02 · 185 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules on how businesses and public bodies must handle personal information — including businesses abroad that handle the information of people in Japan in supplying them goods or services — what people can ask of them about their own, and the commission that oversees them. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/personal-information-protection-act
- [特定電気通信による情報の流通によって発生する権利侵害等への対処に関する法律 / Act on Measures against Infringement of Rights, etc. Arising from the Distribution of Information through Specified Telecommunications](https://japanlaw.org/en/information-distribution-platform-act): 平成十三年法律第百三十七号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-07-17 · 38 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. When a provider whose service sends information to people at large over telecommunications is liable for information on it that infringes someone's rights, how a person who claims to be harmed can have its sender identified, through the courts if need be, and what duties large designated providers have to handle requests to stop such information quickly and to be open about how they stop information. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/information-distribution-platform-act
- [消費者安全法 / Consumer Safety Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/consumer-safety-act): 平成二十一年法律第五十号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 86 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Protects consumers from harm in their daily lives and keeps them safe: the Prime Minister (内閣総理大臣) sets a basic policy (基本方針), prefectures and municipalities give consumer advice and set up Consumer Affairs Centers (消費生活センター), information on consumer accidents is gathered, the Consumer Safety Investigation Commission (消費者安全調査委員会) investigates them, and measures are taken to stop consumer harm happening or spreading. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/consumer-safety-act
- [食品衛生法 / Food Sanitation Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/food-sanitation-act): 昭和二十二年法律第二百三十三号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 90 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Keeps what people eat and drink from harming their health: it bars unsafe food, controls food additives, residues of agricultural chemicals and the apparatus and packaging that touch food, and sets the hygiene, licensing and import duties of the businesses that handle them. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/food-sanitation-act
- [割賦販売法 / Installment Sales Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/installment-sales-act): 昭和三十六年法律第百五十九号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 214 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Makes buying on credit fair — installment sales (割賦販売), card-based credit and credit arranged for a single purchase — protects buyers from harm, and requires credit card numbers to be properly managed. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/installment-sales-act

## [Family, contracts and courts (民事)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/civil)

- [民法 / Civil Code](https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-code): 明治二十九年法律第八十九号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-24 · 1173 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The Civil Code sets out private rights (私権) and how they work: persons and their capacity, juridical acts (法律行為) such as contracts, real rights (物権) in things and security over them, claims (債権) arising from contracts and other sources, unjust enrichment and torts, and family relations and succession. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/civil-code
- [民事訴訟法 / Code of Civil Procedure](https://japanlaw.org/en/code-of-civil-procedure): 平成八年法律第百九号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-24 · 475 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The procedure of a civil suit, from which court hears it and how it is filed, served, argued and proved, to judgment, appeal and retrial, with separate routes for small claims, bills and checks, and demands for payment. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/code-of-civil-procedure
- [民事調停法 / Civil Mediation Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-mediation-act): 昭和二十六年法律第二百二十二号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-21 · 58 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Court mediation (調停) of civil disputes: the parties, helped by a judge and civil mediation commissioners, look for a settlement by mutual concession that is reasonable and fits the facts of their case. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/civil-mediation-act
- [仲裁法 / Arbitration Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/arbitration-act): 平成十五年法律第百三十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-21 · 62 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules for arbitration whose place of arbitration is in Japan — leaving a civil dispute to one or more arbitrators and accepting their award — and for what the courts do to support it, set awards aside, and enforce awards and interim orders, including ones made abroad. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/arbitration-act
- [人事訴訟法 / Personal Status Litigation Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/personal-status-litigation-act): 平成十五年法律第百九号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-24 · 56 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The court procedure for lawsuits over family status — divorce, whether a marriage or an adoption stands, who a child's parent is — which family courts hear under special rules that depart from the Code of Civil Procedure, including rules on children's custody and on property when a marriage ends. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/personal-status-litigation-act
- [家事事件手続法 / Domestic Relations Case Procedure Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/domestic-relations-case-procedure-act): 平成二十三年法律第五十二号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-24 · 325 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The procedure family courts follow in domestic relations cases: deciding by adjudication (家事審判) the matters the Act's two Appended Tables (別表) list — guardianship, adoption, parental authority and the custody of children, support, inheritance and others — and settling family disputes by mediation (家事調停). Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/domestic-relations-case-procedure-act
- [民事執行法 / Civil Enforcement Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/civil-enforcement-act): 昭和五十四年法律第四号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-21 · 250 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. How a court and its court enforcement officers (執行官) make a debtor pay or do what a judgment or other enforceable instrument requires, sell property to enforce a mortgage or other security interest or where another Act calls for an auction, and find out what property a debtor has. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/civil-enforcement-act
- [破産法 / Bankruptcy Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/bankruptcy-act): 平成十六年法律第七十五号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-21 · 297 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. How a court winds up a debtor who cannot pay its debts — the property of a person, a corporation or other body, or a deceased person's estate or a trust — by sharing it fairly among creditors, and how an individual can then be freed from the debts left over to make a fresh start. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/bankruptcy-act
- [法の適用に関する通則法 / Act on General Rules for Application of Laws](https://japanlaw.org/en/application-of-laws-act): 平成十八年法律第七十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-24 · 43 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Which country's law governs a matter that crosses borders — a contract, a tort (不法行為, a wrongful act that harms someone), a marriage, a child, an inheritance — together with when an Act takes effect and when a custom counts as law. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/application-of-laws-act

## [Housing and property (住まい・不動産)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/housing)

- [借地借家法 / Act on Land and Building Leases](https://japanlaw.org/en/land-and-building-leases-act): 平成三年法律第九十号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-21 · 61 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Special rules for rights to use land in order to own a building on it — by superficies (地上権) or by lease — and for leases of buildings: how long they last, how they are renewed and what effect they have, with the court procedure for changing the conditions of a land lease. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/land-and-building-leases-act
- [宅地建物取引業法 / Real Estate Brokerage Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/real-estate-brokerage-act): 昭和二十七年法律第百七十六号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-04-01 · 201 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. A licence and rules of conduct for businesses that buy, sell or exchange land for building (宅地) and buildings or act as agent or intermediary in their sale, exchange or lease, so that dealings are fair and buyers and others are protected. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/real-estate-brokerage-act
- [不動産登記法 / Real Property Registration Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/real-property-registration-act): 平成十六年法律第百二十三号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-24 · 175 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. How land and buildings, and rights over them such as ownership and mortgages, are recorded in a public register (登記), to protect people's rights and keep property dealings safe and smooth. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/real-property-registration-act
- [建物の区分所有等に関する法律 / Act on Building Unit Ownership](https://japanlaw.org/en/building-unit-ownership-act): 昭和三十七年法律第六十九号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-04-01 · 134 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. How a building split into separately owned units — homes, shops, offices, storerooms and the like — is owned and run: what each owner owns alone and what the owners share, how they decide together, and how they can rebuild, renew, sell or demolish the building. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/building-unit-ownership-act
- [住宅宿泊事業法 / Private Lodging Business Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/private-lodging-business-act): 平成二十九年法律第六十五号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 79 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Lets a person take paying guests into a home for up to 180 days a year on a notification to the prefectural governor, and sets up registration for the businesses that manage those homes or book guests into them. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/private-lodging-business-act

## [Crime and safety (刑事)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/crime)

- [刑法 / Penal Code](https://japanlaw.org/en/penal-code): 明治四十年法律第四十五号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-21 · 301 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The Penal Code sets out where it applies, what punishments there are, the general rules on when an act is a crime and who answers for it, and the crimes themselves with their penalties. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/penal-code
- [刑事訴訟法 / Code of Criminal Procedure](https://japanlaw.org/en/code-of-criminal-procedure): 昭和二十三年法律第百三十一号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-20 · 724 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The steps of a criminal case: investigation, arrest and detention, prosecution, trial, appeal and the carrying out of the sentence. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/code-of-criminal-procedure
- [少年法 / Juveniles Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/juvenile-act): 昭和二十三年法律第百六十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-24 · 98 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. For the sound development of young people under 20: the family court can order delinquent juveniles measures to correct their character and adjust their surroundings (保護処分), and criminal cases against juveniles follow special rules. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/juvenile-act
- [ストーカー行為等の規制等に関する法律 / Anti-Stalking Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/anti-stalking-act): 平成十二年法律第八十一号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-21 · 21 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The law against stalking: it makes stalking a crime, lets the police warn, and the Public Safety Commission order to stop, a person who has made someone afraid through pursuit, etc. or location tracking, and sets out the help a person targeted can get. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/anti-stalking-act
- [配偶者からの暴力の防止及び被害者の保護等に関する法律 / Act on the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the Protection of Victims](https://japanlaw.org/en/spousal-violence-act): 平成十三年法律第三十一号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-24 · 44 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Sets up help for people who suffer violence from a spouse or from a partner they live with — counselling and support centres, temporary protection, police help — and lets a district court order the abuser to stay away from them or to leave their shared home. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/spousal-violence-act
- [不正アクセス行為の禁止等に関する法律 / Act on Prohibition of Unauthorized Computer Access](https://japanlaw.org/en/unauthorized-computer-access-act): 平成十一年法律第百二十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 14 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Makes it a crime to get into a computer over a network by entering someone else's identification code or by getting around its access control, bans obtaining, handing over and storing other people's codes and tricking people into entering theirs, and has the prefectural public safety commission (都道府県公安委員会) help computer operators who have been broken into. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/unauthorized-computer-access-act
- [性的な姿態を撮影する行為等の処罰及び押収物に記録された性的な姿態の影像に係る電磁的記録の消去等に関する法律 / Act on the Punishment of Acts of Photographing Sexual Poses, etc. and the Erasure, etc. of Electronic or Magnetic Records of Images of Sexual Poses Recorded on Seized Articles](https://japanlaw.org/en/sexual-image-filming-act): 令和五年法律第六十七号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-05-21 · 50 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. It punishes filming people's sexual body parts or sexual acts secretly or by other wrongful means, and sharing those images, lets copies of them be confiscated, and lets prosecutors erase such images held on seized items, to stop the harm from happening and spreading. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/sexual-image-filming-act
- [犯罪による収益の移転防止に関する法律 / Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds](https://japanlaw.org/en/criminal-proceeds-act): 平成十九年法律第二十二号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-08-12 · 40 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. To stop the proceeds of crime from being moved and hidden, it makes banks and the other businesses and professions it lists check who their customers are, keep records and report suspicious transactions, and it punishes trading in bank passbooks, cards and account details. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/criminal-proceeds-act
- [遺失物法 / Lost Property Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/lost-property-act): 平成十八年法律第七十三号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 44 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. What someone who finds lost property must do with it, how the police and the occupants of facilities where things are found return it to the person who lost it, and who pays the costs, earns a reward and comes to own it. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/lost-property-act
- [自動車の運転により人を死傷させる行為等の処罰に関する法律 / Act on Punishment of Acts Inflicting Death or Injury on Others by Driving a Motor Vehicle, etc.](https://japanlaw.org/en/dangerous-driving-act): 平成二十五年法律第八十六号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-07-21 · 6 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. It sets the punishments for injuring or killing someone by driving a motor vehicle dangerously, under the influence of alcohol, drugs or illness, or carelessly, and heavier ones where the driver had no licence. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/dangerous-driving-act
- [大麻草の栽培の規制に関する法律 / Act on Regulation of Cannabis Cultivation](https://japanlaw.org/en/cannabis-cultivation-act): 昭和二十三年法律第百二十四号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2025-06-01 · 48 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. It controls who may grow the cannabis plant in Japan and on what conditions — licences, seeds, processing and records — working together with the Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Act (麻薬及び向精神薬取締法), a separate Act, to prevent harm to health from the abuse of cannabis. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/cannabis-cultivation-act

## [Driving and transport (交通)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/transport)

- [道路交通法 / Road Traffic Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/road-traffic-act): 昭和三十五年法律第百五号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-07-21 · 355 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules of the road in Japan for pedestrians, cyclists, drivers and trams, the driving licence system, and the penalties and fixed-payment procedure for breaking them. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/road-traffic-act
- [自動車損害賠償保障法 / Act on Securing Compensation for Automobile Accidents](https://japanlaw.org/en/automobile-accident-compensation-act): 昭和三十年法律第九十七号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-04-01 · 115 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Makes whoever puts a car into use for their own purposes answer, with narrow exceptions, for the deaths and injuries its operation causes, requires cars to carry compulsory liability insurance, and has the government compensate people hurt where the car's holder is unknown or the person liable has no compulsory cover. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/automobile-accident-compensation-act
- [道路運送車両法 / Road Transport Vehicle Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/road-transport-vehicle-act): 昭和二十六年法律第百八十五号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-04-01 · 224 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules for vehicles on Japan's roads: registering who owns a car, its number plate, the safety standards it must meet, its inspection and maintenance, the repair businesses that work on it, and manufacturers' fixes for defects. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/road-transport-vehicle-act

## [Constitution and government (憲法・行政)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/government)

- [日本国憲法 / The Constitution of Japan](https://japanlaw.org/en/constitution): 昭和二十一年憲法 · Constitution (憲法) · text in force since 1947-05-03 · 103 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Japan's supreme law: it declares that sovereign power rests with the people, makes the Diet the sole law-making organ, gives executive power to the Cabinet and judicial power to the courts, guarantees fundamental human rights, and puts the duty to respect and uphold it on those who hold public office. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/constitution
- [行政手続法 / Administrative Procedure Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/administrative-procedure-act): 平成五年法律第八十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-07-24 · 48 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The common procedure government offices must follow when they decide applications, make decisions against a person, give administrative guidance, receive notifications and make orders, so that administration is fair and open and people's rights and interests are protected. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/administrative-procedure-act
- [行政不服審査法 / Administrative Complaint Review Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/administrative-complaint-review-act): 平成二十六年法律第六十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-24 · 87 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. How a person can challenge a decision of a government agency, or its failure to decide an application, by asking the administration itself to review it, under a simple, quick and fair procedure. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/administrative-complaint-review-act
- [行政事件訴訟法 / Administrative Case Litigation Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/administrative-case-litigation-act): 昭和三十七年法律第百三十九号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-10-01 · 51 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. The rules for administrative cases in court, above all for challenging an administrative authority's decision: the kinds of suit, who may bring one and against whom, the time limits, and what the court may order while the case runs and in its judgment. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/administrative-case-litigation-act
- [行政機関の保有する情報の公開に関する法律 / Act on Access to Information Held by Administrative Organs](https://japanlaw.org/en/information-disclosure-act): 平成十一年法律第四十二号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-07-17 · 27 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Gives any person the right to ask the administrative organs (行政機関) this Act lists, from the Cabinet's bodies to the Board of Audit, to disclose the documents they hold, and sets what may be withheld and how a refusal is challenged. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/information-disclosure-act
- [国家賠償法 / State Redress Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/state-redress-act): 昭和二十二年法律第百二十五号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 1947-10-27 · 6 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. 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. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/state-redress-act
- [国民の祝日に関する法律 / Act on National Holidays](https://japanlaw.org/en/national-holidays-act): 昭和二十三年法律第百七十八号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2020-01-01 · 3 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Names Japan's national holidays (国民の祝日), days set aside for the people to celebrate, give thanks or commemorate, and makes each of them — and certain days after or between them — a public holiday (休日). Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/national-holidays-act
- [学校教育法 / School Education Act](https://japanlaw.org/en/school-education-act): 昭和二十二年法律第二十六号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-06-17 · 161 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. What counts as a school in Japan, from kindergarten to university, and who may found one; the nine years of compulsory education a custodian must give a child; and the rules for specialized training colleges and miscellaneous schools, which are not schools in this Act's sense. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/school-education-act
- [災害対策基本法 / Basic Act on Disaster Management](https://japanlaw.org/en/disaster-management-act): 昭和三十六年法律第二百二十三号 · Act (法律) · text in force since 2026-11-02 · 219 articles in the main text · English: 100% of paragraphs. Japan's framework for preparing for and responding to disasters: who must make disaster management plans, what mayors, police officers, governors and prefectural public safety commissions may order when a disaster strikes — evacuation, restricted areas, traffic bans, work and the taking of goods — how disaster victims are supported, and the state of emergency disaster. Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/disaster-management-act