Laws, parliament, official gazettes, and judicial precedents
Confirm laws and ordinances as primary information. Effective dates and revision history are crucial.
Trace "who said what, on what basis".
Primary source for "when and what was officially announced" in Japan — notifications and public notices. Since April 2025 the electronic edition is the authentic, official version; recent issues are freely readable online.
From solicitation of opinions → results → laws and notifications. Trace the flow of policy formation.
Trace points of contention and reasoning.
Japan's official archive preserving diplomatic records and treaty originals from the Meiji era onwards. A primary source you can go to directly, for the evidence behind modern international relations, security, and treaties.
The official database maintained by the United Nations for multilateral treaties and bilateral agreements. Adoption date, entry into force, and full state-party lists are available as primary information for international law. Mostly English, but navigable through treaty names and state-party tables.
The unified official portal to search EU law, treaties, and case law. Lets you trace how EU regulations and directives correspond to member-state domestic law — a starting point for comparative legal-system inquiry.
WIPO's official database that cross-searches national IP laws and international treaties. A primary source for international comparison of copyright, patent, and trademark.
The UN's principal judicial organ. Publishes judgments, advisory opinions, and filings in their original texts. Lets you read the intersection of inter-state disputes and international law in primary-source form.
The official database of the UN treaty bodies monitoring implementation of human rights treaties. Cross-search state reports, committee observations, and individual-communication decisions by treaty and country.
The National Diet Library's index to historical and current Japanese laws and ordinances.
Database of historical Japanese laws compiled by Nagoya University — for tracing legal change over time.