# 道路運送車両法 / Road Transport Vehicle Act — 第四十条 (Article 40)

- Law: 道路運送車両法 (Road Transport Vehicle Act), 昭和二十六年法律第百八十五号
- English title "Road Transport Vehicle Act": Ministry of Justice translation database, which lists the title
- 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: 第四十条 (Article 40)（自動車の構造） — address `art-40`
- Text in force since: 2026-04-01
- URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-40
- Permanent URL (e-Gov law ID, never renamed): https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-40
- 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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### 第四十条（自動車の構造） — Structure of Motor Vehicles
<sup>caption: machine translation, not official</sup>
<sup>art-40 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-40 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-40</sup>

**第一項**  自動車は、その構造が、次に掲げる事項について、国土交通省令で定める保安上又は公害防止その他の環境保全上の技術基準に適合するものでなければ、運行の用に供してはならない。
<sup>art-40/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-40/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-40/par-1</sup>
A motor vehicle must not be used for operation unless its structure conforms, with respect to the following matters, to the technical standards for safety, or for pollution prevention and other conservation of the environment, prescribed by Order of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism:
<sup>machine translation, not official</sup>

  **一**  長さ、幅及び高さ
  <sup>art-40/par-1/item-1 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-40/par-1/item-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-40/par-1/item-1</sup>
  length, width and height;
  <sup>machine translation, not official</sup>

  **二**  最低地上高
  <sup>art-40/par-1/item-2 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-40/par-1/item-2 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-40/par-1/item-2</sup>
  minimum ground clearance;
  <sup>machine translation, not official</sup>

  **三**  車両総重量（車両重量、最大積載量及び五十五キログラムに乗車定員を乗じて得た重量の総和をいう。）
  <sup>art-40/par-1/item-3 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-40/par-1/item-3 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-40/par-1/item-3</sup>
  gross vehicle weight (meaning the sum of the vehicle weight, the maximum load capacity and the weight obtained by multiplying 55 kilograms by the seating capacity);
  <sup>machine translation, not official</sup>

  **四**  車輪にかかる荷重
  <sup>art-40/par-1/item-4 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-40/par-1/item-4 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-40/par-1/item-4</sup>
  load on the wheels;
  <sup>machine translation, not official</sup>

  **五**  車輪にかかる荷重の車両重量（運行に必要な装備をした状態における自動車の重量をいう。）に対する割合
  <sup>art-40/par-1/item-5 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-40/par-1/item-5 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-40/par-1/item-5</sup>
  ratio of the load on the wheels to the vehicle weight (meaning the weight of the motor vehicle when equipped with the equipment necessary for operation);
  <sup>machine translation, not official</sup>

  **六**  車輪にかかる荷重の車両総重量に対する割合
  <sup>art-40/par-1/item-6 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-40/par-1/item-6 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-40/par-1/item-6</sup>
  ratio of the load on the wheels to the gross vehicle weight;
  <sup>machine translation, not official</sup>

  **七**  最大安定傾斜角度
  <sup>art-40/par-1/item-7 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-40/par-1/item-7 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-40/par-1/item-7</sup>
  maximum stable inclination angle;
  <sup>machine translation, not official</sup>

  **八**  最小回転半径
  <sup>art-40/par-1/item-8 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-40/par-1/item-8 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-40/par-1/item-8</sup>
  minimum turning radius;
  <sup>machine translation, not official</sup>

  **九**  接地部及び接地圧
  <sup>art-40/par-1/item-9 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-40/par-1/item-9 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-40/par-1/item-9</sup>
  ground contact area and ground contact pressure.
  <sup>machine translation, not official</sup>

## Cited by

6 provisions cite this one. No official source publishes this direction.

- 道路交通法 第五十一条の四第一項（放置違反金） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-traffic-act/art-51-4/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/335AC0000000105/art-51-4/par-1
- 道路運送車両法 第四十三条第一項（自動車の保安上の技術基準についての制限の付加） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-43/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-43/par-1
- 道路運送車両法 第四十六条第一項（保安基準の原則） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-46/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-46/par-1
- 道路運送車両法 第七十五条の二第一項（共通構造部の指定） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-75-2/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-75-2/par-1
- 道路運送車両法 第九十九条第一項（保安基準の規定の準用） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-99/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-99/par-1
- 道路運送車両法 第百十条第一項第一号 — https://japanlaw.org/ja/road-transport-vehicle-act/art-110/par-1/item-1 · https://japanlaw.org/l/326AC0000000185/art-110/par-1/item-1

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## Sources

- e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁) — 道路運送車両法 — the text in force from 2026-04-01 (https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185/20260401_508AC0000000002), retrieved 2026-10-13
- Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — 道路運送車両法 — its English title as the Ministry of Justice's translation database lists it (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/529), retrieved 2026-09-18
- claude-sonnet-5-5 — Machine translation, batch road-transport-vehicle-act-20261013T120733-008, translated 2026-10-13
- claude-sonnet-5-5 — Machine translation, batch road-transport-vehicle-act-20261013T120733-009, translated 2026-10-13
- This site's parser, version 189 — 道路運送車両法 — structure, counts, cross-references and defined terms, computed 2026-10-13