Tag Archives: Japan

What’s Your Number? Be Careful When Asking Your Japanese Employees.

In many countries, individuals are identified by a unique number issued by the government. Probably the most ubiquitous example is the Social Security Number in the United States, which is generally necessary to obtain employment, open a bank account or obtain a driver’s license, and is used for credit monitoring and other private sector purposes. … Continue Reading

The form labor agreement that’s making headlines in Japan

Last week, Japanese newspapers reported that a national medical research center in the suburbs of Osaka had entered into a so-called “36 agreement” with its doctors and nurses in 2012, allowing these employees to work up to 300 hours of overtime per month and up to 2,070 hours of overtime per year. (To be clear, … Continue Reading

Tokyo District Court rules that “US-style” dismissal is invalid

Article 16 of the Japanese Labour Contracts Act provides that “If a termination lacks objectively reasonable grounds and is not considered to be appropriate in general social terms, it is treated as an abuse of rights and is invalid”.  Obviously the terms “objectively reasonable grounds” and “appropriate in general social terms” are ambiguous but here … Continue Reading

Three ways to dismiss employees in Japan

If we were to list the “frequently asked questions” by multinationals doing business in Japan, the first question on the list might be “how do we dismiss employees?” The short answer is “with extreme care,” as Japan is famous for its “lifetime employment” system, and the law here is very protective of employees. Many multinationals have tried to fire … Continue Reading

Work-related illness rising in Japan – harassment and overwork to blame?

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan recently released figures showing a 12% year on year rise in reported work-related illness claims.  In a third of these cases, employees were awarded compensation after claims of ‘power harassment’ or “dramatic and uncompensated rise in workload” were upheld. Of course, instances of workplace harassment are … Continue Reading

Increasing Temporary Employment in Japan: Polarisation in the Labour Market and the “Working Poor” – Part 1

This post is also available in Japanese. Under the traditional Japanese labour market model, the great majority of people work as regular employees, so creating the seniority-based pay system and the custom of long-term “job for life” employment. However, in the mid-1990s Japan was threatened with large-scale economic recession and the environment for Japanese workers … Continue Reading

Webinar: Confidentiality and Restrictive Covenants Around the Globe – Australia and Japan

In 2013, Squire Sanders is presenting a series of webinars focusing on restrictive covenants around the globe.  These webinars will provide participants with an understanding of the basic principles of restrictive covenants in different jurisdictions. On 7 March 2013 at 9.00am GMT (5pm WST, 6pm JST, 8pm EDT) our featured countries are Australia and Japan.  … Continue Reading

Companies’ Options to Save on Electricity after Massive Earthquake in Japan

As a result of the Great East Japan Earthquake, the Kanto and Tohoku regions of Japan have been suffering a serious electricity shortage.  It is reported that this summer, electric power companies in these regions will possibly implement a “planned outage”, which means an outage intentionally implemented in designated areas during certain periods of time … Continue Reading
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