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Japanese Law Numbers - JSON

Japanese law numbers are a numbering system assigned at the time of promulgation to identify laws, cabinet orders, imperial orders, ministerial ordinances, and rules. Numbers are assigned sequentially from No. 1 for each calendar year according to the type of law and year of enactment, and when the era name changes, numbering starts anew from No. 1 at that point. Assigned based on the promulgation date, they play an important role in uniquely identifying laws, especially when multiple laws share the same title. In the e-Gov law search system, a 15-digit law ID is used to identify laws in a machine-readable format.

law act cabinet order ministerial ordinance e-Gov law number legal system official gazette

[
  {
    "code": "1",
    "slug": "constitution",
    "name": "Constitution",
    "description": "The supreme law of Japan.",
    "format": "Constitution of Japan (no law number)",
    "lawType": "Constitution"
  },
  {
    "code": "2",
    "slug": "act",
    "name": "Act",
    "description": "Laws established through approval by the National Diet based on constitutional provisions.",
    "format": "Era Name Year Act No. X (e.g., Heisei 5 Act No. 88)",
    "lawType": "Act",
    "lawIdPrefix": "AC"
  },
  {
    "code": "3",
    "slug": "cabinet-order",
    "name": "Cabinet Order",
    "description": "Orders issued by the Cabinet to implement constitutional and legal provisions.",
    "format": "Era Name Year Cabinet Order No. X (e.g., Showa 60 Cabinet Order No. 75)",
    "lawType": "CabinetOrder",
    "lawIdPrefix": "CO"
  },
  {
    "code": "4",
    "slug": "imperial-order",
    "name": "Imperial Order",
    "description": "An old form of law, but includes those still valid at the time data compilation began.",
    "format": "Era Name Year Imperial Order No. X (e.g., Showa 18 Imperial Order No. 618)",
    "lawType": "ImperialOrder",
    "lawIdPrefix": "IO"
  },
  {
    "code": "5",
    "slug": "ministerial-ordinance",
    "name": "Ministerial Ordinance",
    "description": "Orders established by heads of organizations based on laws and cabinet orders.",
    "format": "Era Name Year Ministry Ordinance No. X (e.g., Heisei 17 Ministry of Justice Ordinance No. 27)",
    "lawType": "MinisterialOrdinance",
    "lawIdPrefix": "M1-M6"
  },
  {
    "code": "6",
    "slug": "rule",
    "name": "Rule",
    "description": "Rules such as National Personnel Authority rules, Board of Audit rules, and Supreme Court rules.",
    "format": "Era Name Year Rule No. X (e.g., Showa 22 Board of Audit Rule No. 1)",
    "lawType": "Rule",
    "lawIdPrefix": "R"
  }
]