# 中小企業退職金共済法 / Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Retirement Allowance Cooperative Act — 第三十三条 (Article 33) This is the Markdown twin of https://japanlaw.org/ja/sme-retirement-allowance-act/art-33. 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: 中小企業退職金共済法 (Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Retirement Allowance Cooperative Act), 昭和三十四年法律第百六十号 - English title "Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Retirement Allowance Cooperative 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: 第三十三条 (Article 33)（時効） — address `art-33` - Text in force since: 2025-06-01 - URL (the page that opens at this provision): https://japanlaw.org/ja/sme-retirement-allowance-act/art-33 - e-Gov law ID: 334AC0000000160 — 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. --- ### 第三十三条（時効） — Prescription caption: machine translation, not official art-33 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/sme-retirement-allowance-act/art-33 **第一項** 退職金等の支給を受ける権利はこれらを行使することができる時から五年間、掛金及び過去勤務掛金の納付を受ける権利並びに掛金又は過去勤務掛金の返還を受ける権利はこれらを行使することができる時から二年間行使しないときは、時効によつて消滅する。 art-33/par-1 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/sme-retirement-allowance-act/art-33/par-1 A right to receive payment of a retirement allowance, etc. is extinguished by prescription if it is not exercised for five years from the time when it becomes exercisable, and a right to receive payment of premiums and past service premiums and a right to receive a refund of premiums or past service premiums are extinguished by prescription if they are not exercised for two years from the time when they become exercisable. machine translation, not official **第二項** 退職金の支給を受ける権利を有する遺族が先順位者又は同順位者の生死又は所在が不明であるために退職金の請求をすることができない場合には、その請求をすることができることとなつた日から六月以内は、当該権利の消滅時効は、完成しないものとする。 art-33/par-2 · https://japanlaw.org/ja/sme-retirement-allowance-act/art-33/par-2 In the case where a bereaved family member who has the right to receive payment of a retirement allowance is unable to claim the retirement allowance because it is unknown whether a person of a prior or equal rank is alive or where that person is, the extinctive prescription of that right is not to be completed within six months from the day on which the claim becomes possible. machine translation, not official ## Cited by 1 provision cites this one. No official source publishes this direction. - 中小企業退職金共済法 第五十一条第一項（準用） — https://japanlaw.org/ja/sme-retirement-allowance-act/art-51/par-1 --- ## Sources - e-Gov 法令検索, Digital Agency (デジタル庁) — 中小企業退職金共済法 — the text in force from 2025-06-01 (https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/334AC0000000160/20250601_504AC0000000068), retrieved 2026-11-06 - Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice (法務省) — 中小企業退職金共済法 — its English title as the Ministry of Justice's translation database lists it (https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/1775), retrieved 2026-09-23 - claude-sonnet-5-5 — Machine translation, batch sme-retirement-allowance-act-20261106T173426-008, translated 2026-11-07 - This site's parser, version 225 — 中小企業退職金共済法 — structure, counts, cross-references and defined terms, computed 2026-11-06