Japan posting English translations of business laws to avoid misinterpretation News
Japan posting English translations of business laws to avoid misinterpretation

[JURIST] The Japanese government is planning to put English translations of its business-related laws on the internet in order to avoid their misinterpretation by foreign companies. Right now there are no official translations, although unofficial private English translations of multiple Japanese statutes [examples] have been online for years.

On April 14, major laws including the Civil Code, Antimonopoly Law, and the Labor Standards Law will be published on the website of the Cabinet Office [official website]. A total of 200 laws are expected to be translated into English, with the Secretariat itself providing official translations for the first 14 laws. Translation of the remaining laws will be delegated to relevant ministries. The Office will also provide translation of some 3000 Japanese legal terms, for instance "teitoken" (mortgage), "jokoku" (appeal to the Supreme Court) and "kabushiki kaisha" (joint-stock corporation). UPI has more. Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun has local coverage.

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