General safety and health manager

The person an employer (事業者) must appoint at each workplace of the size a Cabinet Order (政令) sets, to direct the safety managers (安全管理者), the health managers (衛生管理者) and certain others, and to be in overall charge of the workplace's safety and health work (Industrial Safety and Health Act, Article 10, paragraph (1)): the measures that keep workers from danger and from harm to their health, safety and health education for workers, medical checkups (健康診断) and other measures to maintain and improve workers' health, investigating the causes of industrial accidents (労働災害) and preventing them from happening again, and other work an Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (厚生労働省令) adds to prevent industrial accidents (Article 10, paragraph (1), items (i) to (v)). The post must be filled by the person in overall charge of running the business at that workplace (Article 10, paragraph (2)). Where it is needed to prevent industrial accidents, the director of the prefectural labor bureau (都道府県労働局長) may make recommendations to the employer on how the manager carries out that work (Article 10, paragraph (3)), and, where it is needed to keep an industrial accident from happening again, may instruct the employer to have the manager take a training course given by someone the director designates, within a set period (Article 99-2, paragraph (1)). The workplace's safety committee (安全委員会), health committee (衛生委員会) or safety and health committee (安全衛生委員会) is chaired by one member the employer names from among the manager and others in overall charge of running the business at the workplace or in an equivalent position, unless a collective agreement (労働協約) with the union of a majority of the workers provides otherwise (Article 17, paragraphs (2), (3) and (5); Article 18, paragraphs (2) and (4); Article 19, paragraphs (2) and (4)).