Museum Act (Japan)

The Museum Act (博物館法) 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 2008.

Summary
The Act distinguishes between public museums (公立博物館), being those established by local governments, and private museums (私立博物館), 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 (such as the Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, and Kyushu National Museums of the IAI National Institutes for Cultural Heritage) cannot become registered museums (登録博物館), but may be designated museum-equivalent facilities (博物館相当施設). 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 (博物館類似施設). 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 (Articles 1–9) Chapter 2—Registration (Articles 10–17) Chapter 3—Public Museums (Articles 18–26) Chapter 4—Private Museums (Articles 27–28) Chapter 5—Other Provisions (Article 29) Supplementary 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
 * 10. Registration
 * 11. Application
 * 12. Examination
 * 13. Amendment
 * 14. Cancellation
 * 15. Abolition of museums
 * 16. Prefectural regulations
 * 17. deleted
 * 18. Establishment
 * 19. Jurisdiction (governed by the local board of education)
 * 20–22. Museum councils
 * 23. Admission fees
 * 24,26. Subsidies
 * 25. deleted
 * 27. Relationship with prefectural boards of education
 * 28. Relationship with central and local governments
 * 29. Facilities equivalent to museums