The Declaration of Independence in Japanese:
Retranslation Back to English

Partial Retranslation of Saito Makoto’s Translation (1998)

As it happens in the human world, a group of people find it necessary to dissolve the political bands which have connected then with other people, and to claim, among the powers of the earth, the independent and equal station to which the law of nature and the law of nature’s god entitle them. In such a case, if they want to pay a decent respect to the opinions of humankind, they are required to declare the causes which have impelled them to the separation.
We believe the following truths too obvious to require any proof: That all persons are created equal; That all persons are endowed by the creator with certain rights inalienable to anyone; that in these rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are included; That to secure these rights, governments are instituted, the powers of which are justified only when the governed give their consent to it; that when any government, regardless of its form, becomes destructive of the proper ends of government, the people always have the right to alter or to abolish such a government; That they have the right to institute a new government and make its principle and the organizational form of its powers most likely to effect the safety and happiness of the people. Of course, governments long established should not be changed lightly for transient causes, and that is indeed dictated by prudence. As a matter of fact, all human experience indicates that humankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to restore their rights by abolishing the form of government to which they are accustomed. But when abuses of power and usurpations of rights are practiced for long years with a consistent aim, clearly intending to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is the right and also the duty of the people to throw off such a government and create a new organization to safeguard their own future safety. …