# 医療法 / Medical Care Act — 第一条 (Article 1)

- 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: 第一条 (Article 1) — address `art-1`
- Text in force since: 2026-10-01
- URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/ja/medical-care-act/art-1
- Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-1
- Every provision below carries its address and both URLs on the line under it.
- Japanese text: e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁). English: as marked on each line below.

Only the Japanese as published by the government has legal effect; the text
below is a copy of it. Every English rendering below is a translation and
says which kind: the Ministry of Justice's translation, or this
site's machine translation, whose model and date the Sources list names.
They are never merged and never substituted for one another.

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### 第一条
<sup>art-1 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/medical-care-act/art-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-1</sup>

**第一項**  この法律は、医療を受ける者による医療に関する適切な選択を支援するために必要な事項、医療の安全を確保するために必要な事項、病院、診療所及び助産所の開設及び管理に関し必要な事項並びにこれらの施設の整備並びに医療提供施設相互間の機能の分担及び業務の連携を推進するために必要な事項を定めること等により、医療を受ける者の利益の保護及び良質かつ適切な医療を効率的に提供する体制の確保を図り、もつて国民の健康の保持に寄与することを目的とする。
<sup>art-1/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/medical-care-act/art-1/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/323AC0000000205/art-1/par-1</sup>
The purpose of this Act is to contribute to the protection of the health of the nation by safeguarding the interests of medical care recipients and ensuring a system that efficiently delivers high quality and well-suited medical care, by means of providing for the necessary particulars to support well-suited choices about medical care by the recipients thereof, the necessary particulars to ensure the safety of medical care, the necessary particulars concerning the establishment and management of hospitals, clinics, and birthing centers, and the necessary particulars to develop such facilities and promote the sharing of functions and cooperation between medical institutions.
<sup>Ministry of Justice translation — Japanese Law Translation Database System</sup>

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## Sources

- 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
- This site's parser, version 210 — 医療法 — structure, counts, cross-references and defined terms, computed 2026-10-19