Director of a District Transport Bureau

The head of a district transport bureau (地方運輸局), a local branch (地方支分部局) of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (国土交通省), a national ministry (Act for Establishment of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Articles 2, paragraph (1), and 30; National Government Organization Act, Articles 3, paragraph (2), and 9). The bureau handles part of the Ministry's work, including the working conditions, safety, welfare and accident compensation of seafarers (船員) and their job placement (Act for Establishment of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Article 4, paragraph (1), items (xcvi) and (xcvii), and Article 35, paragraph (1)); its names, seats and areas are set by Cabinet Order (政令) (Article 35, paragraph (3)), and a transport supervision department (運輸監理部) handles part of its work in some places (Article 36, paragraph (1)). For seafarers (船員), and people seeking to become seafarers, the director, including the director of a transport supervision department, takes the place of the director of a prefectural labor bureau (都道府県労働局長) under the Act on Promoting the Resolution of Individual Labor-Related Disputes: the director provides information and consultation, may give advice or guidance when a party to a dispute asks for help, and, on a party's application for mediation (あっせん) in a dispute other than one over recruitment and hiring, and where the director thinks it necessary, has mediators (あっせん員) designated from a list of candidates the director draws up every two years mediate it (Act on Promoting the Resolution of Individual Labor-Related Disputes, Articles 3, 4(1), 5(1), and 21, paragraphs (1) and (3)). Under the Minimum Wage Act, the director likewise exercises for seafarers the powers the Act gives the director of a prefectural labor bureau (Minimum Wage Act, Article 35, paragraph (2)). Under the Road Transport Vehicle Act the director has powers of its own — for example, to order the user of a motor vehicle that does not meet the safety standards (保安基準) to have it serviced, and to certify a business that services motor vehicles (Road Transport Vehicle Act, Articles 54, paragraph (1), and 78, paragraph (1)) — and the powers that Act gives the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (国土交通大臣) may be delegated to the director, as a Cabinet Order (政令) provides; the director's powers may be delegated on, as a Cabinet Order provides, to the head of a transport supervision department (運輸監理部長) or of a district transport branch office (運輸支局長) (Article 105, paragraphs (1) and (2)).