e-Gov Japan Laws Scraper

Scrape the complete catalog of Japanese statutes from the e-Gov Law Search API. Returns law titles, numbers, categories, repeal status, and amendment history for 9,000+ statutes — plus full law body text and structured article data in fulltext mode.

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e-Gov Japan Laws Scraper Features

• Extracts metadata for all 9,000+ statutes in the Japanese government's official law database
• Filters by law type: Constitution, Act, Cabinet Order, Ministerial Ordinance, or Rule
• Filters by repeal status — active laws only, repealed, suspended, or all
• Fetches a specific statute by its e-Gov law ID (e.g., 321CONSTITUTION)
• Returns full law body text with article structure in fulltext mode — each article as a formatted string
• Pure API scraping against a public government endpoint — no proxies, no browser, no captchas
• Handles offset pagination automatically across the full 9,000+ record catalog

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What Can You Do With Japanese Law Data?

• Legal researchers — Build a searchable corpus of Japanese legislation for comparative law analysis or citation indexing
• Compliance teams — Track amendment history and enforcement dates for statutes relevant to your business
• LegalTech developers — Populate a document database with structured law text for RAG pipelines or legal AI applications
• Academics — Analyze the distribution of law types, category breakdowns, or promulgation timelines across eras
• Translators and law firms — Identify recently amended statutes or pull full article text for targeted review

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How e-Gov Japan Laws Scraper Works

1. Configure your scrape: pick a mode (catalog or fulltext), apply optional filters, and set a record limit
2. The scraper pages through the e-Gov catalog API at laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/2/laws, fetching 100 records per request with a 300ms courtesy delay between calls
3. In catalog mode, each record is extracted from the response and saved directly — no additional requests
4. In fulltext mode, the scraper makes a second call to /api/2/law_data/{law_id} for each statute and parses the LawXML tree to extract plain text and article-level structure

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Input

{
  "mode": "catalog",
  "lawType": "Act",
  "repealStatus": "None",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	catalog	catalog returns law metadata only. fulltext also fetches the full law body text and article structure for each statute.
lawType	string	(all types)	Filter to a specific law type: Constitution, Act, CabinetOrder, MinisterialOrdinance, or Rule. Leave blank for all types.
lawId	string	(none)	Fetch a single statute by its e-Gov ID (e.g. 321CONSTITUTION). Overrides other filters.
repealStatus	string	(all statuses)	Filter by repeal status: None (active), Repeal, RepealedBeforeEnforcement, or Suspended.
maxItems	integer	10	Maximum records to return. Set to 0 for all 9,000+.

Additional input examples:

{ "lawId": "321CONSTITUTION", "mode": "fulltext" }

{ "mode": "catalog", "repealStatus": "None", "maxItems": 0 }

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e-Gov Japan Laws Scraper Output Fields

Catalog Mode

Returns law metadata for each statute. Fast — one API request per 100 records.

{
  "law_id": "321CONSTITUTION",
  "law_revision_id": "321CONSTITUTION_19470503_000000000000000",
  "law_type": "Constitution",
  "law_num": "昭和二十一年憲法",
  "law_num_era": "Showa",
  "law_num_year": 21,
  "law_num_num": "",
  "law_title": "日本国憲法",
  "law_title_kana": "にほんこくけんぽう",
  "abbrev": "",
  "category": "憲法",
  "promulgation_date": "1946-11-03",
  "amendment_promulgate_date": "",
  "amendment_enforcement_date": "",
  "amendment_law_id": "",
  "amendment_law_title": "",
  "repeal_status": "None",
  "repeal_date": "",
  "current_revision_status": "CurrentEnforced",
  "remain_in_force": false,
  "updated": "2022-04-01T00:00:00",
  "law_body_text": "",
  "article_count": 0,
  "articles": [],
  "source_url": "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/ja/laws/view/321CONSTITUTION"
}

Field	Type	Description
law_id	string	Canonical e-Gov law identifier (e.g. 321CONSTITUTION, 322AC0000000004)
law_revision_id	string	Specific revision ID combining law_id and enforcement date
law_type	string	Law type: Constitution / Act / CabinetOrder / MinisterialOrdinance / Rule
law_num	string	Official law number in Japanese (e.g. 昭和二十二年法律第九十号)
law_num_era	string	Japanese era of promulgation: Meiji / Taisho / Showa / Heisei / Reiwa
law_num_year	number	Year of promulgation within the era
law_num_num	string	Sequential law number within the year
law_title	string	Full law title in Japanese (e.g. 日本国憲法)
law_title_kana	string	Phonetic reading of the law title in hiragana
abbrev	string	Common abbreviation of the law title if one exists
category	string	Legal category (e.g. 憲法 / 民事 / 刑事 / 商事 / 労働 / 税法)
promulgation_date	string	Original promulgation date (YYYY-MM-DD)
amendment_promulgate_date	string	Latest amendment promulgation date (YYYY-MM-DD)
amendment_enforcement_date	string	Latest amendment enforcement date (YYYY-MM-DD)
amendment_law_id	string	e-Gov ID of the most recently amending law
amendment_law_title	string	Title of the most recent amending law
repeal_status	string	Repeal status: None / Repeal / RepealedBeforeEnforcement / Suspended
repeal_date	string	Date of repeal if applicable (YYYY-MM-DD)
current_revision_status	string	Enforcement status: CurrentEnforced / Repeal / Future
remain_in_force	boolean	Whether the law remains in force after repeal
updated	string	Timestamp when this record was last updated in the e-Gov system
source_url	string	Direct URL to this law on the e-Gov portal

Fulltext Mode

Returns all catalog fields plus three additional fields populated from the law body.

{
  "law_id": "321CONSTITUTION",
  "law_title": "日本国憲法",
  "law_body_text": "日本国憲法第一章　天皇第一条　天皇は、日本国の象徴であり...",
  "article_count": 103,
  "articles": [
    "第一条 |  | 天皇は、日本国の象徴であり日本国民統合の象徴であつて...",
    "第二条 |  | 皇位は、世襲のものであつて..."
  ]
}

Field	Type	Description
law_body_text	string	Full plain text of the law body — all article, paragraph, and item text concatenated
article_count	number	Number of articles in the main provision
articles	array	Structured articles: each entry formatted as ArticleNum | ArticleTitle | text

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🔍 FAQ

How do I scrape Japanese law data from e-Gov?

e-Gov Japan Laws Scraper hits the official government REST API at laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/2/laws. No authentication required — it's a public endpoint maintained by Japan's Digital Agency.

How much does e-Gov Japan Laws Scraper cost to run?

e-Gov Japan Laws Scraper runs on pay-per-event pricing. The catalog for all 9,000+ laws costs roughly $9 in records plus a $0.10 start fee. Fulltext mode is more expensive — each law requires a second API call, so budget accordingly for large fulltext runs.

Does e-Gov Japan Laws Scraper need proxies?

No proxies needed. The e-Gov API is a public government endpoint with no IP blocking or geographic restrictions. The scraper runs without any proxy configuration.

Can I get full law text, not just metadata?

Yes. Set mode to fulltext. The scraper fetches the full LawXML for each statute and returns the complete text as a plain string plus a structured array of articles. Expect the run to take longer — one extra API call per statute.

Can I filter to only active (non-repealed) laws?

Set repealStatus to None. That filters the catalog to statutes with no repeal event, which is most of the 9,000+ records. You can combine it with lawType to narrow further — for example, active Acts only.

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Need More Features?

Need custom fields, additional filtering, or a different target endpoint? File an issue or get in touch.

Why Use e-Gov Japan Laws Scraper?

• Complete coverage — All 9,000+ statutes in the official Japanese government database, including the full amendment and repeal history for each
• Two output modes — Catalog mode is fast and cheap for metadata; fulltext mode delivers article-level structure for document-intensive workflows, so you pay only for what you actually need
• No setup required — Public government API, no proxies, no auth, no captchas. Configure your filters and run.