The Three Main Labor Statutes
The Three Main Labor Statutes are the Labor Standards Act, the Labor Contracts Act, and the Worker Dispatch Act.123 Together they answer three different questions: what minimum conditions your employer must meet, whether your contract terms and dismissal hold up, and who your employer is when you work as haken.123
Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) and the Japanese Law Translation database. This article is general information, not legal advice; for your specific case, consult a licensed bengoshi (lawyer) or shakai hoken roumushi (sharoushi, labor and social security attorney).
Overview
Japan has no single law titled "labour law." The term is collective, covering the statutes on work including the Labor Standards Act, the Labor Union Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, and the Minimum Wage Act.4 This article maps the three statutes the content plan treats as the core for individual employment, then shows where the supporting acts fit.123
| Statute | Enacted | Job it does | Question it answers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Labor Standards Act (労働基準法) | 1947 | Non-waivable floor for wages, hours, and conditions | "What must my employer guarantee at minimum?"1 |
| Labor Contracts Act (労働契約法) | 2007 | Framework for forming, changing, and ending contracts | "Is this term or dismissal actually valid?"2 |
| Worker Dispatch Act (労働者派遣法) | 1985 | Governance of the haken dispatch industry | "Who is my employer, and what are the triangle duties?"3 |
What counts as the three here
Comparative references sometimes group a different trio: the Labour Standards Law with the Trade Union Law and the Labour Relations Adjustment Law.5 That is a collective-labor framing centered on organizing, bargaining, and dispute settlement.5
If you meet the Trade Union Act and Labour Relations Adjustment Act grouped with the Labor Standards Act, you are reading a collective-labor overview about unions and strikes.5 This article follows the individual-employment trio instead: minimum conditions, contract rules, and dispatch governance.123
This article stays with the individual-employment trio and treats collective topics as out of scope.65 Practitioner overviews use the same division of labor: the LSA sets minimum standards, the Labour Union Act governs collective relationships, and the Labour Contract Law governs individual relationships built through voluntary negotiation.6
The three statutes apply to private-sector employees regardless of nationality.7 You receive the same treatment as Japanese workers under the same rules.7 Exclusions are narrow and covered in their own section below.25
The Labor Standards Act: The Minimum Standards Floor
The Labor Standards Act (Act No. 49 of 1947) sets minimum standards for working conditions.1 A contract stipulating conditions below those standards is invalid in those portions, which are then governed by the Act's standards instead.17 No signature waives this floor, a point worth internalizing before you read any offer letter.1
Wages, hours, rest, and leave under the LSA
Wages must be paid in currency, in full, directly to you, at least once a month, on a definite date.17 Bank transfer is allowed with your consent.17 Deductions for tax and social insurance are permitted; other deductions need a labor-management agreement.7
Statutory working hours cap at 40 hours per week and 8 hours per day, excluding rest periods.176 Any overtime or holiday work beyond those hours requires a labor-management agreement, the 36 agreement, filed with the labor standards inspection office.76
Since the 2019 work-style-reform amendment, statutory overtime caps apply on top of the agreement.76 The standard cap is 45 hours per month and 360 hours per year.76 Even with a special clause for temporary necessity, an absolute ceiling of 720 hours per year applies, with under 100 hours in any single month including holiday work, an 80-hour-or-less average over any 2 to 6 month period including holiday work, and no more than 6 months per year above 45 hours.76
Premium pay follows Article 37: at least 25 percent above the normal wage for overtime, at least 25 percent for night work between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., and at least 35 percent for statutory-holiday work.76 Overtime exceeding 60 hours in a month draws a 50 percent premium.76
Rest and days off are fixed entitlements.7 You receive at least 45 minutes of rest when working over 6 hours and at least 1 hour when working over 8 hours, taken during working hours.7 You receive at least one day off per week, or at least four days off across four weeks.7
Annual paid leave accrues under Article 39.174 Six months of continuous employment with at least 80 percent attendance earns 10 days, rising with tenure to a statutory maximum of 20 days per year.174 Japan has no general statutory sick-leave regime, so paid leave and any company sick-leave scheme carry that weight.8
Dismissal procedure and work rules under the LSA
A dismissal requires at least 30 days advance notice, or payment of average wages for each day the notice falls short.16 At hiring, your employer must clearly indicate wages, working hours, and other ordinance-specified conditions.7 If a disclosed condition proves false, you may terminate the contract immediately.7
The Act also bans pre-fixed breach penalties.6 A clause demanding fixed compensation for quitting, such as repaying training costs on early resignation, has been held invalid as an unlawful liquidated-damages provision.6
Workplaces with 10 or more workers must draw up rules of employment and file them with the labor standards inspection office.1 The count runs per workplace, not per company.1 Before filing or amending the rules, the employer must hear the majority union or majority worker representative, and must then publicize the rules to workers by posting, distribution, or an accessible system.1
Who the LSA does not cover
The LSA excludes mariners under the Mariners Act, businesses employing only cohabiting relatives, and domestic workers.15 National and local public servants in the general category sit under the public-service acts instead.9
Coverage differences follow you across the trio.29 Domestic workers fall outside the LSA but inside the Labor Contracts Act, while relatives living with and solely employed by the employer sit outside both.9 The LCA itself excludes national and local public officers plus contracts with only a cohabiting relative.2
The Labor Contracts Act: Formation, Modification, and Termination
The Labor Contracts Act (Act No. 128 of 2007) states its purpose directly: stable individual labor relationships through contracts established or changed by agreement in voluntary negotiation.2 A worker is a person employed and paid wages by an employer; the employer is the person paying those wages.2
How contracts form and change
Formation runs on agreement between equals.2 Both sides must perform in good faith and must not abuse their rights, with regard for treatment balance and work-life balance.2 A contract is established when you agree to work for the employer and the employer agrees to pay wages.2
Work rules enter the contract through Article 7.2 Where the employer has publicized rules with reasonable conditions, your contract follows those rules except for terms you individually negotiated differently.2 Conditions change by agreement, and the employer cannot impose a disadvantageous change through a rules revision without your agreement.2
The exception sits in Article 10.2 A disadvantageous rules change still binds you if the employer publicizes it and the change is reasonable in light of your disadvantage, the business necessity, the new contents, and union negotiations.2 Individually fixed non-changeable terms survive even then, unless they fall below the rules standard.2
Hierarchy disputes resolve downward toward the worker.2 A contract below the work-rules standard is invalid in those portions and governed by the rules; rules violating statutes or collective agreements do not apply to covered workers in those portions.2 Rule-change procedure itself follows LSA Articles 89 and 90.2
Transfers and discipline get their own validity tests.2 A transfer order that abuses the employer's authority in light of its necessity, worker selection, and circumstances is invalid.2 A disciplinary order without objectively reasonable grounds and social appropriateness is likewise invalid.2
Terminology
- 労働契約 (roudou keiyaku): "labor contract," the agreement to work for wages.2
- 就業規則 (shuugyou kisoku): "rules of employment," the workplace-wide rulebook filed under LSA Article 89.12
Dismissal validity and fixed-term rules
Article 16 carries the operative dismissal standard nationwide.2 A dismissal lacking objectively reasonable grounds and not considered appropriate in general societal terms is treated as an abuse of rights and is invalid.26 Courts apply this strictly in the employee's favor, case by case.6
Fixed-term workers get midpoint protection.2 The employer may not dismiss before term expiry absent unavoidable circumstances, and must avoid setting an unnecessarily short term to force repeated renewals.2
The five-year conversion rule sits in Article 18.28 Where repeated fixed-term contracts with the same employer exceed five years in total, your application for an indefinite-term contract before the current term expires is deemed accepted.28 Post-conversion conditions equal your current fixed-term conditions minus the term itself.28
Timing follows the contract length.8 With one-year terms the right arises during the sixth year; with three-year terms it arises during the first renewal period, covering years four to six.8 Once you apply, the employer cannot refuse.8
Non-renewal at expiry faces the Article 19 test.2 Where ending the contract equals dismissing an indefinite-term worker in social terms, or where you had reasonable grounds to expect renewal, a refusal without objectively reasonable grounds and social appropriateness is deemed accepted on the prior conditions.2
The Worker Dispatch Act: Governing Haken Work
The Act on Securing the Proper Operation of Worker Dispatching Businesses and Protecting Dispatched Workers (Act No. 88 of 1985) pairs labor supply-demand adjustment with dispatched-worker protection.3 Dispatch was legalized in 1985, expanded through 1999 and 2003 deregulation, then re-regulated toward protection from the mid-2000s through the 2012, 2015, and 2018 revisions.10
The three-party structure
Worker dispatch means you are employed by one person but work for another under the latter's instructions, while keeping your employment with the former.3 The dispatching agency is your employer; the client directs your daily work but does not employ you.3
Running a dispatch business requires a license from the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare.3 The agency-client dispatch contract must specify the work content, place and organizational unit, the instructing person, the period and workdays, start and end times with breaks, safety and health, complaint handling, and employment-security measures on termination including absence-allowance funding.3
Since the equal-treatment reform, the client must give the agency comparable-worker wage and treatment information before contracting.3 Fee levels must let the agency meet its equal-treatment duties rather than undercutting them.3
Terminology
- 労働者派遣 (roudousha haken): "worker dispatch," employment kept with the agency plus work under client instructions.3
- 派遣労働者 (haken roudousha): "dispatched worker," the dispatched employee.3
- 派遣先 (hakensaki): "client," the company receiving dispatch services.3
- 派遣元 (hakenmoto): "dispatching agency," the licensed employer.3
Protections and time limits in dispatch
Some work is off-limits to dispatch entirely.311 Port transport, construction, and security-services work are prohibited by statute.3 MHLW guidance adds hospital and medical-related work, with introduction-planned dispatch as the exception.11
Two 3-year clocks then govern ordinary dispatch.12 The business-unit clock caps the same client site at 3 years of receiving dispatch in principle.12 Exceeding 3 years requires hearing the majority union or majority representative by one month before the limit date, with extension in further 3-year blocks.12
| Clock | Rule | What resets or extends it |
|---|---|---|
| Business-unit limit | Same client site may receive dispatch for 3 years in principle | Majority-union hearing extends in 3-year blocks12 |
| Individual limit | Same worker in the same unit (ka or equivalent) for at most 3 years | Moving units resets the individual clock, not the site clock12 |
Several categories sit outside both limits.1211 Indefinite-agency employees, workers aged 60 or older, fixed-term project work, limited-day work at around half or fewer of normal days and 10 or fewer days per month, and cover for maternity, childcare, or family-care leave takers are exempt.1211
Day-worker dispatch is in principle banned.311 Dispatching workers the agency employs for 30 days or fewer is prohibited, with narrow exceptions such as software development, workers 60 or older, students, side-work earners, and non-primary earners.311
Equal treatment runs through two methods.310 The 2018 revision bans unreasonable gaps between dispatched and regular workers, via client parity or a labor-management-agreement method, with the agency explaining treatment particulars to each dispatched worker.310
Illegal dispatch triggers the deemed-offer system.11 A client accepting prohibited work, unlicensed supply, period-limit breaches, or disguised contracting is deemed to have offered the worker the same conditions as the agency contract, with acceptance forming the contract.11 A client cancelling for its own reasons must meanwhile secure new opportunities and bear absence-allowance funding.3
Clients face two hiring-related duties.11 They may not receive as a dispatched worker someone they directly employed, including arubaito, within the previous year, aside from post-retirement workers 60 or older.11 They must also share directly hired recruitment information with qualifying dispatched workers already received continuously.11
Supplementary Statutes That Extend the Three
Equality, leave, safety, and wage-floor acts
Four supporting acts extend the trio into discrimination, caregiving, safety, and pay floors.7131415 The table below maps each to its trigger; the prose that follows adds the current-status notes for the two that are moving.
| Act | Covers | Reach for it when |
|---|---|---|
| Equal Employment Opportunity Act (1972) | Equal opportunity regardless of sex; harassment prevention | Discrimination, pregnancy-related disadvantage, sexual harassment13 |
| Childcare and Family Care Leave Act (1991) | Childcare and family-care leave entitlements | Taking or returning from caregiving leave14 |
| Industrial Safety and Health Act | Hazard standards, safety duties, health examinations | Injury risk, safety equipment, medical examinations7 |
| Minimum Wage Act (1959) | Prefectural and industry wage floors | Pay below the floor or payment-method disputes715 |
The Equal Employment Opportunity Act (Act No. 113 of 1972) mandates equal opportunity and treatment regardless of sex and bars marriage, pregnancy, or childbirth as retirement or dismissal grounds.13 Employers must run sexual-harassment prevention measures with consultation channels.13
Harassment duties are currently expanding. Customer-harassment prevention and job-applicant sexual-harassment prevention duties were promulgated in June 2025 and take effect within 18 months (as of 2026-02; confirm current status with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare).16 Employers must publicize policies, run consultation channels, and bar retaliation once in force.16
The wage floor refreshes on a fixed cycle. Prefectural minima reset every October (as of 2026).7 Regional minima cover every prefecture with specified industry minima alongside them, the higher amount prevailing, and sub-minimum agreements are invalid and deemed replaced.715
Equal pay for non-regular workers tightened through the Part-time and Fixed-term Employment Act, fully applied including small employers from April 2021.810 MHLW equal-pay guidelines were revised on April 28, 2026 for effect on October 1, 2026 (as of 2026-04).8
When to Reference Which Statute
A reader-side decision flow
Start from your problem, not the statute name.123 The flow below routes the common cases; enforcement channels such as the Labor Bureau and the Labor Tribunal attach at the end of each route.7
Unpaid wages, overtime math, hours, breaks, or leave start with the Labor Standards Act.176 It carries the enforceable floor plus the 36-agreement and premium machinery behind every overtime claim.76
Contract validity, rule changes, and dismissal outcomes belong to the Labor Contracts Act.2 Formation and change run through Articles 7 to 13, dismissal validity through Article 16, and fixed-term issues through Articles 17 to 19.2
Any haken problem starts with the Worker Dispatch Act.3 Identify the employer (the agency), then apply the triangle duties; LSA, safety, equality, and leave protections reach dispatched workers through the Act's special-application provisions.3 Discrimination or harassment invokes the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, caregiving leave the Childcare and Family Care Leave Act, and injury or safety the Industrial Safety and Health Act with workers-compensation coverage.13147
Good to know
The LSA floor cannot be waived by contract
A clause offering below-standard conditions is invalid in those portions and replaced by the statutory standard.1 Signing it does not bind you to the lower term, though you may still need the Labor Bureau or a professional to enforce the difference.17
A dismissal can clear LSA procedure yet fail LCA validity
The 30-day notice or pay in lieu is a procedural hurdle under LSA Article 20.1 The dismissal must separately survive the LCA Article 16 test on objectively reasonable grounds and social appropriateness.2 Passing one gate never satisfies the other.12
Haken questions start with who your employer is
The agency employs you even though the client directs your daily work.3 Wage, contract, and dismissal questions go to the agency first, while site instructions, safety, and complaints follow the triangle duties both sides owe.3 Misdirecting the question to the client is the most common first mistake.3
A possible LSA comprehensive amendment is in deliberation, not in force
An MHLW expert panel reported in January 2025 and Labour Policy Council deliberations continue on proposals including a 14-consecutive-day work ban, advance rest-day designation, roughly 11-hour inter-shift intervals, right-to-disconnect guidelines, multi-job hour aggregation, and ending the small-workplace 44-hour exception (as of 2026-02; confirm current status with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare).16 Treat these as watch items, not current obligations, until legislation passes.16
See also
- Working-Hours Records and the Burden of Proof
- Service Overtime and the Karoshi Discourse
- Labor Unions: Enterprise vs. Local Unions
- How the Japanese Labor Market Works