# 少年法 / Juveniles Act — 第五十一条 (Article 51) This is the Markdown twin of https://japanlaw.org/ja/juvenile-act/art-51. 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. - Law: 少年法 (Juveniles Act), 昭和二十三年法律第百六十八号 - English title "Juveniles Act": Ministry of Justice translation - Kind: Act — the distinction between 法律 (Act), 政令 (Cabinet Order), 省令 (Ministerial Order) and 条例 (local ordinance) decides who may issue it and what it may say. - Provision: 第五十一条 (Article 51)（死刑と無期拘禁刑の緩和） — address `art-51` - Text in force since: 2026-06-24 - URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/ja/juvenile-act/art-51 - Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000168/art-51 - Every provision below carries its address and both URLs on the line under it. - Japanese text: e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁). English: as marked on each line below. Only the Japanese as published by the government has legal effect; the text below is a copy of it. Every English rendering below is a translation and says which kind: the Ministry of Justice's translation, or this site's machine translation, whose model and date the Sources list names. They are never merged and never substituted for one another. --- ### 第五十一条（死刑と無期拘禁刑の緩和） — Mitigation of Death Penalty and Imprisonment for Life caption: machine translation, not official art-51 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/juvenile-act/art-51 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000168/art-51 **第一項** 罪を犯すとき十八歳に満たない者に対しては、死刑をもつて処断すべきときは、無期拘禁刑を科する。 art-51/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/juvenile-act/art-51/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000168/art-51/par-1 If a person is under 18 years of age when the crime was committed, then they will be sentenced to imprisonment for life, if the punishment would otherwise be the death penalty. machine translation, not official **第二項** 罪を犯すとき十八歳に満たない者に対しては、無期拘禁刑をもつて処断すべきときであつても、有期拘禁刑を科することができる。この場合において、その刑は、十年以上二十年以下において言い渡す。 art-51/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/juvenile-act/art-51/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000168/art-51/par-2 If a person is under 18 years of age when the crime was committed, they may be sentenced to imprisonment for a fixed term, if the punishment would otherwise be imprisonment for life. In this case, the punishment will be a sentence of 10 years or more to no more than 20 years. machine translation, not official ## Cited by 4 provisions cite this one. No official source publishes this direction. - 少年法 第五十八条第一項第二号（仮釈放） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/juvenile-act/art-58/par-1/item-2 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000168/art-58/par-1/item-2 - 少年法 第五十八条第二項（仮釈放） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/juvenile-act/art-58/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000168/art-58/par-2 - 少年法 第五十九条第二項（仮釈放期間の終了） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/juvenile-act/art-59/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000168/art-59/par-2 - 少年法 附則第二条第一項（経過措置） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/juvenile-act/suppl-4261-23/art-2/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000168/suppl-4261-23/art-2/par-1 --- ## Sources - e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁) — 少年法 — the text in force from 2026-06-24 (https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/323AC0000000168/20260624_508AC0000000046), retrieved 2026-11-02 - Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — Juveniles Act — Ministry of Justice translation (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/4827/tb), retrieved 2026-11-02 - claude-sonnet-5-5 — Machine translation, batch juvenile-act-20261102T172711-001, translated 2026-11-03 - This site's parser, version 220 — 少年法 — structure, counts, cross-references and defined terms, computed 2026-11-02