Museum Act (Japan)

The Museum Act is a Japanese law covering matters relating to the country's museums. The law was passed as Law No. 285 in 1951 and was last amended in 2022.

Summary

The Act distinguishes between public museums, being those established by local governments, and private museums, those established by incorporated associations and foundations or by juridical religious and other persons; as such those established by the state or an Independent Administrative Institution cannot become registered museums, but may be designated museum-equivalent facilities. Facilities that engage in similar activities but are neither registered or designated have no restrictions or conditions imposed by the Act; these are defined elsewhere as museum-like facilities. Article 2 defines museums as facilities that collect, store, research, and utilize materials on history, art, folkways, industry, and the natural sciences; as such, various types of "museum" are provided for, including botanical gardens, zoos, aquaria, and planetaria.
As of October 2018, there were 5,738 museums in Japan: 914 registered museums, 372 museum-equivalent facilities, and 4,452 museum-like facilities.

Articles

The Museum Act has 29 Articles:
Chapter 1—General Provisions

1. Purpose of Act
2. Definition of museums
3. Activities conducted by museums
4–7. Directors, curators, qualifications, training
8–9. Standards and evaluation

Chapter 2—Registration

10. Registration
11. Application
12. Examination
13. Amendment
14. Cancellation
15. Abolition of museums
16. Prefectural regulations
17. deleted

Chapter 3—Public Museums

18. Establishment
19. Jurisdiction
20–22. Museum councils
23. Admission fees
24,26. Subsidies
25. deleted

Chapter 4—Private Museums

27. Relationship with prefectural boards of education
28. Relationship with central and local governments

Chapter 5—Other Provisions

29. Facilities equivalent to museums

Supplementary Provisions