Chapter III-2 Worker Recruitment

①If a person seeking to employ workers seeks to provide a person, who is not their employee, with compensation and have that person recruit workers for them, they must obtain a license from the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare.

②The amount of the compensation referred to in the preceding paragraph must receive prior approval from the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare.

③If a person seeking to employ workers have a person not constituting their employee recruit workers for them without providing that person with compensation, they must file a notification of this with the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare.

①If it is particularly necessary to do so in order to balance workforce supply and demand, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare or the chiefs of public employment security offices, as it concerns worker recruitment (excluding recruitment under paragraph (1) of the preceding Article), may limit the timing of recruitment, the number of persons to be recruited, the recruitment area, and other aspects of recruiting methods, providing the reasons therefor, pursuant to the provisions of Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

②When granting a license for worker recruitment pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (1) of the preceding Article, the Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare may provide the person seeking to conduct worker recruitment with the necessary instructions concerning the timing of recruitment, the number of persons to be recruited, the recruitment area, and other matters concerning recruiting methods.

It is prohibited for a person recruiting workers or a person who is engaged in recruiting workers pursuant to the provisions of Article 36, paragraph (1) or (3) (hereinafter referred to as a "commissioned recruiter") to receive any compensation in connection with its recruitment, under any name, from a worker that has responded to a recruitment invitation.

A person recruiting workers must not compensate an employee who is engaged in recruiting workers or a commissioned recruiter, except when paying wages, salaries, or the equivalent or when providing compensation to which the approval referred to in Article 36, paragraph (2) pertains.

①If a person recruiting workers under the license referred to in Article 36, paragraph (1), or a person engaged in recruiting workers pursuant to the provisions of that paragraph, violates a provision of this Act or the Worker Dispatching Act (excluding the provisions of Chapter 3, Section 4; the same applies in the following paragraph) or an order or disposition based on its provisions, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare may revoke the license referred to in Article 36, paragraph (1), or order the suspension of its worker recruitment operations for a designated period.

②If a person who is recruiting workers after having filed a notification as referred to in Article 36, paragraph (3), or a person who is engaged in recruiting workers pursuant to the provisions of that paragraph violates a provision of this Act or the Worker Dispatching Act or an order or disposition based on its provisions, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare may order the discontinuance of the worker recruitment operations, or order the suspension thereof for a designated period.

A person recruiting workers and a commissioned recruiter must each endeavor, in administering their operations, to take the measures necessary to improve those operations, in order to contribute to workers' appropriate occupational choices.

The provisions of Article 20 apply mutatis mutandis to worker recruitment. In such a case, in paragraph (1) of that Article, the phrase "a public employment security office" is deemed to be replaced with "persons that conduct worker recruitment (excluding persons prescribed by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; the same applies in the following paragraph) and commissioned recruiters (which mean commissioned recruiters provided in Article 39; the same applies in said paragraph)" and the phrase "must not refer job seekers to a place of business" is deemed to be replaced with "must not recruit workers to work at a place of business"; in paragraph (2) of that Article, the phrase "unrestricted referral of job seekers" is deemed to be replaced with "unrestricted recruitment of workers" and the phrase "the public employment security office must not refer job seekers to that place of business" is deemed to be replaced with "the public employment security office must report this to persons recruiting workers and commissioned recruiters, and those persons recruiting workers and commissioned recruiters, upon receipt of that report, must not recruit workers to work at that place of business," and the term "referral" in the proviso to that paragraph is deemed to be replaced with "recruitment".

The procedure for applying for a license for worker recruitment and other necessary particulars related to worker recruitment are specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.