About This Site
What Steps Are Involved Before a Translated Law Is Made Available to the Public?
Development of Translation of laws and regulations is carried out based on the plan (Translation Development Plan) decided by the "Liaison Conference of the Relevant Ministries and Agencies for Developing a Foundation for Promoting Translation of Japanese Laws and Regulations into Foreign Languages".
The process is as explained in the document entitled Law Translation Workflow. First, the responsible ministry or agency prepares a draft translation of the law in question and submits it to the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice then has the draft proofread by a native English speaker, evaluated by a legal expert, and checked by a coordinator who is familiar with Japanese and English-language law. The responsible ministry or agency decides on a translation for release in consideration of the results of the evaluations and checks that have taken place at the Ministry of Justice, and that version is made available on the JLT Website as the finalized translation.
As you can see, many steps are involved before the finalized translation of a law is made available to the public, and these take time, so for user convenience, the Ministry of Justice takes draft translations that have passed an established evaluation screening, marks them clearly as tentative translations, and makes them available to the public in advance, before making available the finalized translations.
NOTICE TO USERS
Translations
The translations contained in the Japanese Law Translation Database System are not official texts, and not all of the translations are finalized versions. Only the original Japanese texts of the laws and regulations have legal effect, and the translations are to be used solely as reference materials to aid in the understanding of Japanese laws and regulations. The government of Japan is not responsible for the accuracy, reliability or currency of the legislative material provided in this website, or for any consequence resulting from use of the information in this website. For all purposes of interpreting and applying law to any legal issue or dispute, users should consult the original Japanese texts published in the Official Gazette.
Translation of laws and regulations is carried out in accordance with the plan (Translation Development Plan) decided by the "Liaison Conference of Relevant Ministries and Agencies on the Development of Infrastructure for Promoting Translation of Laws and Regulations into Foreign Languages".
Tentative Translations
Any translation that the title of a law indicates to be a tentative translation has not yet been proofread or corrected by a native English speaker or legal translation expert; this translation may be revised in the future.
Citation, Reproduction and Reprinting
The data contained in the Japanese Law Translation Database System may be cited, reproduced, or reprinted in accordance with the Terms of Use.