# 中小企業基本法 / Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Basic Act — 第二十一条 (Article 21)

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- Law: 中小企業基本法 (Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Basic Act), 昭和三十八年法律第百五十四号
- English title "Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Basic 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: 第二十一条 (Article 21)（労働に関する施策） — address `art-21`
- Text in force since: 2026-01-01
- URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/ja/sme-basic-act/art-21
- e-Gov law ID: 338AC0000000154 — never renamed. A permanent link, `/l/{lawId}/{address}` on this site, redirects to the page.
- Every provision below carries its address and its URL 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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### 第二十一条（労働に関する施策） — Measures Concerning Labor
<sup>caption: machine translation, not official</sup>
<sup>art-21 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/sme-basic-act/art-21</sup>

  **第一項**  国は、中小企業における労働関係の適正化及び従業員の福祉の向上を図るため必要な施策を講ずるとともに、中小企業に必要な労働力の確保を図るため、職業能力の開発及び職業紹介の事業の充実その他の必要な施策を講ずるものとする。
  <sup>art-21/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/sme-basic-act/art-21/par-1</sup>
  The State is to take the measures necessary to ensure proper labor relations in small and medium-sized enterprises and improve the welfare of employees, and, in order to secure the labor force necessary for small and medium-sized enterprises, is to take the necessary measures, including enhancement of vocational skills development and job placement services, and other measures.
  <sup>machine translation, not official</sup>

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## Sources

- e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁) — 中小企業基本法 — the text in force from 2026-01-01 (https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/338AC0000000154/20260101_507AC0000000041), retrieved 2026-11-06
- Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — 中小企業基本法 — its English title as the Ministry of Justice's translation database lists it (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/822), retrieved 2026-10-07
- claude-sonnet-5-5 — Machine translation, batch sme-basic-act-20261106T173426-003, translated 2026-11-07
- claude-sonnet-5-5, corrected on review by claude-opus-5-5 — Machine translation corrected on review, batch sme-basic-act-20261106T173426-003, translated 2026-11-07
- This site's parser, version 225 — 中小企業基本法 — structure, counts, cross-references and defined terms, computed 2026-11-06