Japan's Takaichi Government Effectively Allows Over 100 Hours of Overtime per Month

▲ Office workers walk through a business district in Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan.

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has decided to ease uniform regulations on overtime work starting next month, according to reports by the Nikkei and other media outlets.

The Japanese Labour Standards Inspection Office's guidelines for reducing overtime currently apply a uniform regulation limiting overtime to within 45 hours per month.

For companies where overtime, including work on days off, is allowed up to under 100 hours per month through labor-management agreements, the same standard has been applied to suppress overtime to within 45 hours per month as much as possible.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, companies that have signed labor-management agreements allowing overtime of 45 hours or less account for about 50 percent of the total, and 70 percent of these include a "special clause" in their agreements allowing extended work up to under 100 hours per month.

With the relaxation of regulations, companies with such special clauses are expected to be effectively permitted to have employees work up to 100 hours of overtime per month.

The regulatory easing is the result of the Japanese government accommodating demands from the business community, including the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), which argued that uniform overtime regulations constrain corporate activities.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has pursued the relaxation of working hour regulations since taking office.

However, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare attached a prerequisite that for companies with special labor-management clauses allowing extended work of under 100 hours per month, management must mandatorily implement measures to protect workers' health even if the uniform regulations are eased.

An official at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare stated, "Overtime should be curbed, but we will support making it possible when necessary," adding, "If problems (such as labor shortages) can be resolved, we should review this proactively."

However, there are also many concerns that easing overtime regulations will weaken companies' resolve to reduce overtime hours, thus running counter to the "work style reform."

In Japan, following the suicide of a in-her/his-20s employee who graduated from prestigious The University of Tokyo, joined Japan's largest advertising agency Dentsu, and suffered from up to 105 hours of overtime a month, the Work Style Reform Act was introduced in 2018 to cap overtime hours at a maximum of 100 hours per month and 720 hours per year.

However, Prime Minister Takaichi, who puts forward a "strong Japan" as her political and economic policy stance, is pushing labor reform as a major agenda and is also reviewing plans to expand the discretionary labor system, which recognizes hours agreed upon by labor and management as working hours regardless of actual hours worked.

(Photo: Yonhap News)

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