I hereby give My Sanction to the Imperial Ordinance concerning Exceptions to Petition, Application, etc. for Imperial Amnesty and cause the same to be promulgated.
Signed: HIROHITO, Seal of the Emperor
This nineteenth day of the eleventh month of the twenty-first year of Showa (November 19, 1946)
Countersigned: Prime Minister YOSHIDA Shigeru
Minister of Justice KIMURA Tokutaro
Imperial Ordinance No. 554
Article 1. Petition, application, etc. for special amnesty, and commutation or rehabilitation to specified persons may be made in accordance with the proceedings prescribed by the present Imperial Ordinance for the time being.
Article 2. Special amnesty, commutation or rehabilitation to persons who were sentenced to penalties in Okinawa Prefecture, Saghalien, Korea or Formosa, or Kuantungchou, the South Sea Islands or other districts outside Japan may be petitioned by the Minister of Justice, notwithstanding the provisions of Art. 19 of the Imperial Amnesty Ordinance.
Article 3. With regard to persons prescribed by the preceding Article, the public procurator of the district court which exercises jurisdiction over the place where the permanent domicile, or the permanent residence or the place of residence in the mainland (except Okinawa Prefecture and Saghalien, the same applies hereinafter) of the person concerned exists, or the seat of the prison in the mainland where he is or was kept may ask the Minister of Justice for special amnesty or commutation, notwithstanding the provisions of par. 1 of Art. 13 of the Imperial Amnesty Ordinance.
In the case of the application for special amnesty or commutation made by the chief of the prison in the mainland where the person perscribed by the preceding paragraph is kept in accordance with the provisions of par. 1 of Art. 13 of the Imperial Amnesty Ordinance, it may be made through the public procurator of the district court which exercises jurisdiction over the seat of the said prison, notwithstanding the provisions of par. 2 of the said Art.
Article 4. With regard to persons prescribed by Art. 2, the public procurator of the district court which exercises jurisdiction over the permanent domicile, or the permanent residence or the place of residence in the mainland of the person concerned exists, or the seat of the prison in the mainland where he was kept may ask ex officio or on his application the Minister of Justice for rehabilitation, notwithstanding the provisions of par. 1 of Art. 15 of the Imperial Amnesty Ordinance.
Article 5. If the Imperial sanction has been given to special amnesty, commutation or rehabilitation in the case of Art. 2, the Minister of Justice shall send a letter of special amnesty, commutation or rehabilitation to the public procurator of a district court who made the application, or in the case where the chief of a prison made the application, the public procurator of the district court through which it was made, and cause it to be given to the person concerned, notwithstanding the provisions of Art. 17 of the Imperial Amnesty Ordinance.
Article 6. Documents drawn up by the public procurator mentioning the facts which constitute the offence of the person concerned and the application of Laws and Ordinances to it may replace a copy of, or an extract from the judgment to be annexed to a document asking for special amnesty, commutation or rehabilitation, notwithstanding the provisions of Arts. 14 and 16 of the Impeiral Amnesty Ordinance.
Supplementary Provision:
The present Imperial Ordiance shall come into force as from the day of its promulgation.