I hereby give My sanction to the Amnesty Law for which the concurrence of the Imperial Diet has been obtained and cause the same to be promulgated.
Signed:HIROHITO, Seal of the Emperor
This twenty-seventh day of the third month of the twenty-second year of Showa (March 27, 1947)
Countersigned: Prime Minister and concurrently Minister for Foreign Affairs YOSHIDA Shigeru
Minister of State Baron SHIDEHARA Kijuro
Minister of Justice KIMURA Tokutaro
Minister of State SAITO Takao
Minister of Communications HITOTSUMATSU Sadayoshi
Minister of State HOSHIJIMA Niro
Minister of Welfare KAWAI Yoshinari
Minister for Home Affairs UEHARA Etsujiro
Minister of Finance ISHIBASHI Tanzan
Minister of State KANAMORI Tokujiro
Minister of Transportation MASUDA Kaneshichi
Minister of Commerce and Industry ISHII Mitsujiro
Minister of Education TAKAHASHI Seiichiro
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry KIMURA Kozaemon
Minister of State TANAKA Man'itsu
Minister of State TAKASE Sotaro
Amnesty Law
Article 1. General amnesty, special amnesty, commutation of punishment, reprieve, and rehabilitation shall be provided for by this Law.
Article 2. General amnesty shall be granted to the offences which shall be specified by cabinet order.
Article 3. General amnesty shall, except as otherwise provided for by the cabinet order described in the preceding Article, have the following effects upon the offences to which general amnesty is granted:
1. As to the persons who have been convicted, it shall lose effects of convictions;
2. As to the persons who have not yet been convicted, it shall extinguish the right of prosecution.
Article 4. Special amnesty shall be granted individually to the specified persons who have been convicted.
Article 5. By special amnesty, convictions shall lose effects.
Article 6. Commutation of punishment shall be granted, by cabinet order specifying the offences of penalties to be commuted, either to the persons condemned to penalties (general commutation), or individually to the specified persons condemned (special commutation).
Article 7. Commutation of punishment by cabinet order (general commutation) shall, except as otherwise provided for by the said cabinet order, mitigate the penalties.
Commutation of punishment granted individually to the specified persons (special commutation) shall either mitigate the penalties, or mitigate the execution of panalties.
Notwithstanding the prvisions of the preceding paragraph, in favour of those for whom the sentence suspending the execution of penalties was pronounced and with whom the term of suspension has not fully elapsed, only the penalties shall be mitigated and the term of suspension may be shortened therewith.
Article 8. Reprieve (exemption from the execution of penalty) shall be granted individually to the specified persons condemned to penalties. But it is not granted to those for whom the sentence suspending the execution of penalties was pronounced and with whom the term of suspension has not fully elapsed.
Article 9. Rehabilitation shall be granted by cabinet order specifying the conditions to be applied, either to those who, by virtue of laws or ordinances, have been deprived of, or suspended from, their public rights or qualifications because of their having been convicted (general rehabilitation) or individually to the specified persons (special rehabilitation). But it shall be granted neither to those with whom the execution of penalties has not been completed nor to those who have not been reprieved.
Article 10. Rehabilitation shall restore the deprived or suspended rights or qualifications.
Rehabilitation may be granted in regard to the specified rights or qualifications.
Article 11. General amnesty, special amnesty, commutation of punishment, reprieve and rehabilitation have no retroactive effect upon any results already brought about by conviction.
Article 12. Special amnesty, commutation of punishmeat granted individually to the specified persons (special commutation), reprieve and rehabilitation granted individually to the specified persons (special rehabilitation) shall be accorded to those persons on behalf of whom the application is made by public procurators or chiefs of prisons where they are imprisoned.
Article 13. When special amnesty, commutation of punishment granted individually to the specified persons (special commutation), reprieve or rehabili tation granted individually to the specified persons (special rehabilitation) has been accorded, the Minister of Justice shall deliver writs of special amnesty, of commutation of punishment, of reprieve or of rehabilitation to public procurators in order to hand them over to the persons concerned.
Article 14. When general amnesty, special amnesty, commutation of punishment, reprieve or rehabilitation has been granted, public procurators shall enter such facts in the originals of decisions.
Supplementary Provisions:
This Law shall come into force as from the day of the enforcement of the Constitution of Japan.
A part of the Prison Law shall be amended as follows:
In Art.64, "Imperial Charter" shall read "a writ of special amnesty, of commutation of punishment or of reprieve."