# 医療法 / Medical Care Act — 第三条 (Article 3) - Law: 医療法 (Medical Care Act), 昭和二十三年法律第二百五号 - English title "Medical Care Act": Ministry of Justice translation - Kind: Act — the distinction between 法律 (Act), 政令 (Cabinet Order), 省令 (Ministerial Order) and 条例 (local ordinance) decides who may issue it and what it may say. - Provision: 第三条 (Article 3) — address `art-3` - Text in force since: 2026-10-01 - URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-care-act/art-3 - Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-3 - Every provision below carries its address and both URLs on the line under it. - Japanese text: e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁). English: as marked on each line below. Only the Japanese as published by the government has legal effect; the text below is a copy of it. Every English rendering below is a translation and says which kind: the Ministry of Justice's translation, or this site's machine translation, whose model and date the Sources list names. They are never merged and never substituted for one another. --- ### 第三条 art-3 · https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-care-act/art-3 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-3 **第一項** 疾病の治療（助産を含む。）をなす場所であつて、病院又は診療所でないものは、これに病院、病院分院、産院、療養所、診療所、診察所、医院その他病院又は診療所に紛らわしい名称を付けてはならない。 art-3/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-care-act/art-3/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-3/par-1 No place that carries out the medical treatment of illnesses (including birthing assistance) and that is not a hospital or clinic is to bear a name that includes the term "hospital", "branch hospital", "maternity hospital", "sanatorium", "clinic", "dispensary", "doctor's office", or any other name that may cause it to be mistaken for a hospital or clinic. Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System **第二項** 診療所は、これに病院、病院分院、産院その他病院に紛らわしい名称を付けてはならない。 art-3/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-care-act/art-3/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-3/par-2 No clinic is to bear a name that includes the term "hospital", "branch hospital", "maternity hospital", or any other name that may cause it to be mistaken for a hospital. Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System **第三項** 助産所でないものは、これに助産所その他助産師がその業務を行う場所に紛らわしい名称を付けてはならない。 art-3/par-3 · https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-care-act/art-3/par-3 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-3/par-3 A facility which is not a birthing center must not bear a name that includes the term "birthing center" or any other name that may cause it to be mistaken for a place where midwives perform services. Ministry of Justice translation with a slip corrected by this site — not the Ministry's text; the Ministry printed: "A facility which is not a birthing center is not bear a name that includes the term "birthing center" or any other name that may cause it to be mistaken for a place where midwifes perform services." — https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/4006/tb **第四項** オンライン診療受診施設でないものは、これにオンライン診療受診施設その他オンライン診療受診施設に紛らわしい名称を付けてはならない。 art-3/par-4 · https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-care-act/art-3/par-4 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-3/par-4 A facility which is not a facility for receiving online medical care must not bear a name that includes the term "facility for receiving online medical care" or any other name that may cause it to be mistaken for a facility for receiving online medical care. machine translation, not official ## Cited by 4 provisions cite this one. No official source publishes this direction. - 介護保険法 第百十五条第二項（医療法との関係等） — https://japanlaw.org/en/long-term-care-insurance-act/art-115/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/l/409AC0000000123/art-115/par-2 - 介護保険法 附則第十四条第一項 — https://japanlaw.org/en/long-term-care-insurance-act/suppl-4291-52/art-14/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/409AC0000000123/suppl-4291-52/art-14/par-1 - 医療法 第八十九条第一項第一号 — https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-care-act/art-89/par-1/item-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-89/par-1/item-1 - 医療法 附則第九十六条第二項 — https://japanlaw.org/en/medical-care-act/suppl-3231-205/art-96/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/suppl-3231-205/art-96/par-2 --- ## Sources - claude-opus-5-5 — Corrections to the Ministry of Justice's English of paragraphs, written 2026-10-19 - e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁) — 医療法 — the text in force from 2026-10-01 (https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/323AC0000000205/20261001_507AC0000000087), retrieved 2026-10-19 - Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — Medical Care Act — Ministry of Justice translation (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/4006/tb), retrieved 2026-10-19 - Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — Medical Care Act (医療法), Article 3, paragraph (3) — the Ministry of Justice's English as printed (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/4006/tb), retrieved 2026-10-19 - claude-sonnet-5-5 — Machine translation, batch medical-care-act-20261019T144711-001, translated 2026-10-20 - This site's parser, version 210 — 医療法 — structure, counts, cross-references and defined terms, computed 2026-10-19