Foreign Law Guide

FOREIGN LAW GUIDE

Researching the Law of Japan

At a glance

Legal system family
Civil law. Article 41 of the Constitution makes the Diet the highest organ of state power and the sole law-making organ of the State. 2
Official gazette
Kanpo, the Official Gazette. Electronic from 1 April 2025 under the Act on Publication of the Official Gazette, Act No. 85 of 2023, and issued by being posted on the Cabinet Office gazette site. 1
Constitution in force
Constitution of Japan. The promulgation rescript above the text is dated 3 November 1946 and records the revision of the Imperial Constitution as passed by the Imperial Diet under article 73 of that constitution. 2
Language of the authoritative text
Japanese. The Ministry of Justice states that only the original Japanese texts of laws and regulations have legal effect, and that the translations it publishes are not official texts. 3

On 1 April 2025 the Kanpo stopped being a thing anybody holds. The Act on Publication of the Official Gazette, Act No. 85 of 2023, took effect that day, and the National Printing Bureau, which prepares the copy, now describes the gazette as issued by being posted on the Cabinet Office gazette site. What the Bureau prints today it calls a document setting out the matters carried in the gazette, obtainable through the gazette service centres for a fee.

Access has a shape worth knowing before planning any research around it. For ninety days from issue, in principle, the whole gazette can be read and downloaded free. After ninety days everything stays available except certain articles that need privacy protection. Behind that window sits the Bureau's search service, which became a members-only paid service on 1 April 2025 with the approval of the Prime Minister under section 16 of the act, and which reaches back to 3 May 1947, the day the Constitution took effect.

The Bureau's older internet edition closed at the end of March 2025 and what it held continues on the new site. Two thresholds in that holding are worth writing down, because they show it was never a complete archive: statutes and cabinet orders from 15 July 2003, and government procurement information from 1 April 2016. Any footnote written before 2025 that links the old service links into nothing.

The rhythm of publication is fixed and easy to plan around. An issue appears at half past eight in the morning on every day that is not an administrative holiday. A special extra can be put out at any hour on any date where the Prime Minister finds an urgent need, and the Bureau offers the announcement establishing an emergency disaster headquarters as its example. Beside the main issue there are ordinary extras, extras carrying the proceedings of either house, and extras carrying government procurement notices.

What the Bureau still prints deserves its precise name, because the vocabulary changed along with the law. The paper it produces is described as a document setting out the matters carried in the gazette, which is a record of what the gazette says rather than the gazette itself. It is obtained through the prefectural gazette service centres against a fee and a delivery charge, or ordered through the national cooperative of gazette sellers.

Then there is the provision for the day the website fails. Where a disaster or a communications failure means the gazette cannot be issued on the site, the Bureau issues it instead by posting a paper gazette on a notice board on its own premises, and distributes that paper through the gazette service centres. The same arrangement serves readers with no internet connection at all, alongside digital signage at the Bureau and copies at the prefectural libraries.

The Constitution is served by the National Diet Library under the rescript that promulgated it, and the rescript repays one careful reading. Dated 3 November 1946, it has the Emperor sanction the revision of the Imperial Constitution, passed by the Imperial Diet under article 73 of that constitution after the Privy Council was consulted, and cause it to be promulgated. In its own promulgation clause, the Constitution of Japan is an amendment to the constitution of 1889.

Two features of that text will catch anyone who searches it. It is set in historical kana orthography throughout, so a phrase typed in modern spelling can miss the article it is aimed at. And the bracketed headings above the articles are not part of the Constitution: the library says in a note of its own that they follow a compilation edited jointly by the legislative bureaus of the two houses and issued by a commercial publisher. A brief that cites a heading is citing an editor.

Article 41 makes the Diet the highest organ of state power and the sole law-making organ of the State. That line is the constitutional reason a Japanese question is a question about statutes, cabinet orders and ministerial ordinances rather than about accumulated decisions, and it is why the gazette carries the weight it does here.

The Ministry of Justice runs a translation database, and its notice to users is among the plainest statements of the translation problem anywhere in this guide. The translations are not official texts. Not all of them are finalized versions. Only the original Japanese texts have legal effect, and the translations are to be used solely as reference materials. For interpreting and applying law to any issue or dispute, users are sent to the original Japanese texts published in the Official Gazette. A translation whose title marks it tentative has not been proofread by a native English speaker or a legal translation expert.

One access note, because it decided what could be cited. The gazette site never resolved from the machine used here, on either client tried and on every attempt, while the rest of the Japanese hosts on this page answered at once. Nothing above is traced to it. The account of how the gazette is now issued comes from the body that prepares it, not from the site that issues it.

Primary sources online

SOURCES

  1. Kanpo ni tsuite, the National Printing Bureau's account of the Official Gazette. Kokuritsu Insatsukyoku, the National Printing Bureau of Japan. https://www.npb.go.jp/product_service/books/kanpo/index.html. Accessed 2026-08-30. The publisher's own description of the gazette it prepares. The Kanpo was founded in 1883 by the documents bureau of the Grand Council of State and was electronic from 1 April 2025 under the Act on Publication of the Official Gazette, Act No. 85 of 2023. It is issued by being posted on the Cabinet Office gazette site, where the whole gazette may be read and downloaded for ninety days in principle and, after that, everything except certain articles needing privacy protection. The Bureau's former internet edition closed on 31 March 2025 and its content, statutes and cabinet orders from 15 July 2003 and government procurement notices from 1 April 2016, continues on the new site. The Bureau's search service became a paid membership service on 1 April 2025 under section 16 of the act, covering from 3 May 1947 to the present. The gazette is issued at 8.30 in the morning on every day that is not an administrative holiday, with a special extra issue at any hour where the Prime Minister finds an urgent need, and if a disaster or a communications failure stops the site the gazette is issued instead by posting a paper edition on a notice board on the Bureau's own premises.
  2. Nihonkoku Kenpo, the text of the Constitution of Japan with its promulgation rescript. Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan, the National Diet Library of Japan. https://www.ndl.go.jp/constitution/etc/j01.html. Accessed 2026-08-30. The library serves the text under the promulgation rescript, dated 3 November 1946, in which the Emperor sanctions the revision of the Imperial Constitution passed by the Imperial Diet under article 73 of that constitution after consultation of the Privy Council. The page states in a note of its own that the bracketed headings above each article are not part of the text but follow the compilation Genko Hoki Soran, edited jointly by the legislative bureaus of the two houses and published by Daiichi Hoki. The text is set in historical kana orthography throughout. Article 41 makes the Diet the highest organ of state power and the sole law-making organ of the State.
  3. Japanese Law Translation, the Ministry of Justice notice to users. Homusho, the Ministry of Justice of Japan. https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en. Accessed 2026-08-30. The ministry states the standing of its own translations plainly, and that statement is what the language field on the Japan page rests on. The translations are not official texts, not all of them are finalized, only the original Japanese texts have legal effect, and for interpreting and applying law a user is sent to the original Japanese texts published in the Official Gazette. A translation whose title marks it as tentative has not been proofread by a native English speaker or a legal translation expert. Translation work follows a plan settled by a liaison conference of the ministries and agencies concerned.

Reviewed 2026-08-30. 3 sources cited on this page.