Labor Advisory

What are the ‘Work Rules’ in Japan?

Work rules in Japan are one of the most important legal documents in HR and labor field which shall be filed with the labor authorities. Keeping the work rules up-to-date will minimize the legal risks and enhance the better labor-management relationship. Developing and maintaining the work rules in a proper manner contributes to better labor-management relationship and create a good sense among local employees on global headquarters. Also, then company shall have an employee representative’s opinion before filing the updated work rules with the authorities and the selection process of the employee representative which shall be observed is stipulated with the labor standards law. We will provide advisory both the wordings and the work rules and the process of submission to the labor authorities including Q&As. Also, we provide translation service from Japanese to English/English to Japanese of the work rules. This is an exclusive service for the clients with retainer contract. We look forward to working with your company to achieve better people management at your local entity. 

Particular care must be taken when changing the pay structure.

Labor standards law allows the employer to exclude some allowances to exclude from the calculation basis of overtime work payment. Except for those allowances, any allowance must be included with the calculation basis of overtime work allowance. Definition of exempt/non-exempt employee can be always an issue. It is always a risk if the employer would not distinguish exempted employees from non-exempted employee in terms of overtime payment. Labor laws provision on this may not be necessarily straight forward, therefore we need to make a proper judgment taking into account the actual operational status of each company. Also, payroll calculation tends to be a kind of black box where nobody can review the detailed formula of overtime work payment and consequently, it often does not follow the legal requirements.  We are of assistance on reviewing it even though your retained payroll provider is not willing to do it.

We provide timely and sincere advisory on the frequently changing regulations

In the past few years, there have been multiple labor law changes such as childcare leave rules, permission of side-jobs and switching right to indefinite-term employment. It is difficult in particular for foreign companies to follow and administer the said changes with the internal resources only. We are of assistance to operate the changes on a proper manner leveraging not only labor laws expertise but also the day-to-day contact with a lot of clients in various industries.

Provide prompt support for the employee’s mental health issues

More employees tend to suffer mental health issues these days. It is one of the difficult tasks to have them recover and get back to the duties. We provide support on how to deal with such cases and support communication between the company and the employee.

We provide timely and sincere advisory on the frequently changing regulations

In the past few years, there have been multiple labor law changes such as childcare leave rules, permission of side-jobs and switching right to indefinite-term employment. It is difficult in particular for foreign companies to follow and administer the said changes with the internal resources only. We are of assistance to operate the changes on a proper manner leveraging not only labor laws expertise but also the day-to-day contact with a lot of clients in various industries.

Provide prompt support for the employee’s mental health issues

More employees tend to suffer mental health issues these days. It is one of the difficult tasks to have them recover and get back to the duties. We provide support on how to deal with such cases and support communication between the company and the employee.