# Business and companies — Japanese laws in English — japanlaw.org

This is the Markdown twin of https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/business. 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 business law in English: companies, securities, banking and payments, unfair competition, subcontracting, copyright and the trades that need a licence.

- Business and companies (会社・取引): 16 laws on this topic, each Act (法律) with the orders that go with it — Cabinet Orders (政令) and Ministerial Orders (省令) — listed beneath it, then the laws at home in another topic that this one lists too.
- 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.

## Laws

- [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
- [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
- [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
- [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

## Also on this topic

- [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
- [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 2026-10-01 · 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
- [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 2026-07-17 · 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
- [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
- [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

## Other topics

- [Work and employment (労働)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/work): Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/laws/work
- [Visas, residence and nationality (在留・国籍)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/immigration): Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/laws/immigration
- [Tax (税)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/tax): Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/laws/tax
- [Pensions, insurance and welfare (社会保障)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/social-security): Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/laws/social-security
- [Consumers and personal data (消費者・個人情報)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/consumers): Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/laws/consumers
- [Family, contracts and courts (民事)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/civil): Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/laws/civil
- [Housing and property (住まい・不動産)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/housing): Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/laws/housing
- [Crime and safety (刑事)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/crime): Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/laws/crime
- [Driving and transport (交通)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/transport): Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/laws/transport
- [Constitution and government (憲法・行政)](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws/government): Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/laws/government
- [Every law](https://japanlaw.org/en/laws): Markdown: https://japanlaw.org/md/en/laws