I hereby give my sanction to the Temporary Construction Restriction Ordinance, under the Imperial Ordinance No. 542 of the twentieth year of Showa (1945) concerning the Orders to be issued in concequence of Our acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, and cause the same to be promulgated.
Signed: Hirohito, Seal of the Emperor
This twenty-eighth day of the fifth month of the twenty-first year of Showa (28 May 1946)
Countersigned: Shigeru Yoshida Prime Minister
Seiichi Omura Minister of Home Affairs
Imperial Ordinance No. 288
Temporary Construction Restriction Ordinance
Article 1. The Construction, extension or reconstruction (referred hereinafter as "construction") of wooden buildings coming under the category of any of the following classifications shall, for the time being, not be allowed, provided that, in the case where a special reason exists to the contrary, permission may be given by the prefectural governor.
1. Restaurants, special drinking and eating houses, and tea-houses ("Machiai").
2. Dance halls and casinos.
3. Theatres, cinema houses, show and variety houses.
4. Dwelling houses, stores, and offices of which the floor area exceeds fifty square metres for a single building. (This provision includes such cases where the floor area exceeds fifty squares metres for a single building as a consequence of extension).
5. Those buildings which the prefectural governor may designate and not covered in the preceding items.
Particulars regarding the restriction of construction listed in the preceding items will be fixed by the competent Minister.
Article 2. In the application of the provisions of the preceding Article, the use of an existing building for the purposes stated in Paragraph 1 of the preceding Article shall be deemed as the construction of a building for those purpose.
Article 3. The prefectural governor may prohibit or restrict the use of a building constructed in contravention of the provisions of Paragraph 1, Article 1, or may issue orders relating to the same.
Article 4. In case the builder or contracter of construction work, owner or occupant of the building contravenes the provisions of this Ordinance or orders issued in consequence of this Ordinance, he shall be subject to a fine of ten thousand (10,000) yen or less.
Article 5. The penal regulations of the preceding Article shall be applied, in case of a juridical person, to the member of the executive committee, director or any other official executing the business of that juridical person; in case of a minor or a person adjudged incompetent, to the legal representative of that person. This rule, however, is not applicable to the minor possessing for the business the same competence as an adult.
In case a representative of a juridical person or an individual, house owner, member of the family, inmate of the house, employed or other person working in the business has committed in the operation of the business contraventions of this Ordinance, the said juridical person or an individual may not elude the punishment for the reason that orders have not been given by him.
Supplementary Provisions:
The present Ordinance shall come into force as from the day of its promulgation.
The provisions of Paragraph 1, Article 1 of the present Ordinance shall not apply to construction which is in the stage of execution at the time of the enforcement of this Ordinance in case a report of said construction is given to, and an approval thereof is obtained from the prefectural governor within two weeks from the day of the enforcement of this Ordinance.