Industrial Safety and Health Act

At each workplace of the scale specified by Cabinet Order, an employer, pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, must appoint a general safety and health manager and have that person direct the work of safety managers, health managers, and persons managing technical issues pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (2) of Article 25-2, as well as having that person engage in the overall management of the following operations:

handling measures to prevent the endangerment of workers and the impairment of workers' health;

handling the provision of education on the safety and health of workers;

handling the implementation of medical checkups and other measures to help maintain and improve workers' health;

handling investigations into the causes of industrial injuries and the strategy for preventing recurrence;

the necessary operations for preventing industrial injuries that Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare prescribes, beyond those set forth in each of the preceding items.

The position of general safety and health manager must be filled by the person in charge of overall management for implementing the undertaking at the relevant workplace.

On finding it to be necessary to do so in order to prevent an industrial injury, the Director of the Prefectural Labour Bureau may issue recommendations to an employer regarding the professional performance of a general safety and health manager.

At each workplace of the business type and scale specified by Cabinet Order, an employer, pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, must appoint a safety manager from among persons holding the qualifications specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and have the safety manager manage the technical issues related to safety that are among the operations set forth in each item of paragraph (1) of the preceding Article (excluding operations that constitute the measures referred to in any of the items of paragraph (1) of the Article 25-2, if a person in charge of managing technical issues is appointed pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (2) of that Article).

On finding it to be necessary to do so in order to prevent an industrial injury, the Chief of the Labour Standard Inspection Offices may order an employer to increase the number of safety managers or dismiss the current safety manager.

At each workplace of the scale specified by Cabinet Order, an employer, pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, must appoint a health manager for the category of operations at that workplace, from among persons licensed by the Director of the Prefectural Labour Bureau or otherwise holding the qualifications specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and have the health manager manage the technical issues related to health that are among the operations set forth in each item of paragraph (1) of Article 10 (excluding operations that constitute the measures set forth in any of the items of paragraph (1) of Article 25-2, if a person in charge of managing technical issues is appointed pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (2) of that Article).

The provisions of paragraph (2) of the preceding Article apply mutatis mutandis to health managers.

At a workplace, other than one as referred to in paragraph (1) of Article 11 and paragraph (1) of the preceding Article, that is of the scale specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, an employer must appoint a safety and health advocate (or a health advocate, for workplaces of a business type other than those specified by Cabinet Order as referred to in paragraph (1) of Article 11) and have that person take charge of the operations referred to in the items of paragraph (1) of Article 10 (excluding operations that constitute the measures referred to in any of the items of paragraph (1) of Article 25-2, if a person in charge of managing technical issues is appointed pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (2) of that Article; at a workplace of a business type other than those specific by Cabinet Order as referred to in Article 11, paragraph (1), this is limited to operations involving health).

At each workplace of the scale specified by Cabinet Order, an employer, pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, must appoint a medical doctor as an industrial physician and have that person provide healthcare to workers and undertake other duties specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (hereinafter referred to as "worker healthcare and related duties").

An industrial physician must be a person who meets the requirements specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare concerning the medical knowledge that a person needs to have in order to undertake worker healthcare and related duties.

An industrial physician must undertake the duties thereof in good faith based on having the medical knowledge needed to undertake worker healthcare and related duties.

An employer that has appointed an industrial physician must provide the industrial physician, pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, with information on workers' working hours and other information provided by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare that the industrial physician needs in order to properly undertake worker healthcare and related duties.

On finding it to be necessary to do so in order to ensure the health of a worker, an industrial physician may issue the necessary recommendations regarding worker healthcare and related duties to the employer. In such a case, the employer must respect these recommendations.

Having received a recommendation referred to in the preceding paragraph, an employer must report the substance of the recommendation and other particulars prescribed by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to the health committee or safety and health committee pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

An employer must endeavor to have a physician having the medical knowledge that a person needs to have in order to undertake worker healthcare and related duties or a person specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare undertake all or a part of the worker healthcare and related duties at a workplace other than one as referred to in paragraph (1) of the preceding Article.

The provisions of paragraph (4) of the preceding Article apply mutatis mutandis to an employer that has a person as prescribed in the preceding paragraph undertake all or a part of worker healthcare and related duties. In such a case, the phrase "must provide" in paragraph (4) of that Article is deemed to be replaced with "must endeavor to provide".

To enable an industrial physician or a person as prescribed in paragraph (1) of the preceding Article to properly implement worker healthcare and related duties, an employer must endeavor to take the necessary measures, such as developing the necessary framework for an industrial physician or a person as prescribed in that paragraph to respond properly to requests for health consultations from workers.

For work inside hyperbaric chambers and other work that makes it necessary to have in place controls for preventing industrial injuries, and that is specified by Cabinet Order, the employer, pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, must appoint an operations supervisor for the relevant work classification from among persons licensed by the Director of the Prefectural Labour Bureau and persons who have completed a skill training course conducted by a person registered by the Director of the Prefectural Labour Bureau, and have that person direct the employees engaged in the relevant work and undertake the other things that are specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

An employer that has contracted out to a contractor a part of the job involved in a business undertaking it carries out at a single site (if there are two or more such contractors due to there being two or more contracts for work under which that part of the job involved in the undertaking is contracted out, this means the orderer under the earliest of those contracts; hereinafter referred to as the "principal employer"), and that has a business undertaking categorized as the construction industry or in any other industry specified by Cabinet Order (hereinafter referred to as a "specified undertaking") (hereinafter such an employer is referred to as a "specified principal employer") must appoint a general safety and health supervisor and have that person give directions to the principal safety and health manager, as well as having that person handle the overall management of the things referred to in the items of Article 30, paragraph (1), if, at that single site, both the persons engaged in work (meaning persons engaged in work on a job carried out by a person conducting a business; the same applies hereinafter) who are its workers (including, if there are persons engaged in work associated with the specified principal employer who are not workers in addition to the persons engaged in work who are its workers, those persons) and the persons engaged in work associated with its contractor (and with all subcontractors, if the job involved in the undertaking of the principal employer is carried out based on multiple levels of contracts; hereinafter referred to as "related contractors") work, in order to prevent industrial injuries from occurring as a result of the work of those persons engaged in work being carried out at the same site; provided, however, that this does not apply if the number of those persons engaged in work is less than the number specified by Cabinet Order.

The position of general safety and health supervisor must be filled by the person in charge of overall management for implementing the undertaking at the relevant site.

In a case as referred to in paragraph (4) of Article 30, if the total number of persons engaged in work as referred to in that paragraph is the number specified by Cabinet Order or more, the relevant designated employer, with regard to those persons engaged in work, must appoint a general safety and health supervisor in order to prevent industrial injuries from occurring as a result of the work of those persons engaged in work being carried out at the same site, must have that person direct the work of the principal safety and health manager, and must also have that person handle the overall management of the things referred to in the items of paragraph (1) of Article 30. In such a case, the provisions of paragraph (1) do not apply to the designated employer and to employers other than the designated employer.

Beyond as prescribed in paragraph (1) and the preceding paragraph, if a job as prescribed in paragraph (1) of Article 25-2 is carried out based on multiple levels of contracts, an employer appointing a general safety and health supervisor pursuant to paragraph (1) or the preceding paragraph, must have the general safety and health supervisor direct the work of persons in charge of managing technical issues pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (2) of Article 25-2 as they apply mutatis mutandis pursuant to paragraph (5) of Article 30-3, as well as having that person exercise overall control over the measures provided for in each item of paragraph (1) of Article 25-2.

The provisions of paragraph (3) of Article 10 apply mutatis mutandis to the execution of operations by the general safety and health supervisor. In such a case, the term "an employer" in that paragraph is deemed to be replaced with "the employer that has appointed the general safety and health supervisor".