Industrial Safety and Health Act

An employer must take the necessary measures to prevent the following dangers:

dangers due to machinery, tools, or any other such equipment (hereinafter referred to as "machinery or other such equipment");

dangers due to substances of an explosive nature, substances of a combustible nature, and substances of an inflammable nature;

dangers due to electricity, heat, and other energy.

An employer must take the necessary measures to prevent dangers arising from work methods involved in operations such as excavation, quarrying, cargo handling, or logging.

An employer must take the necessary measures to prevent dangers related to places from which workers could fall or when there are concerns about landslides.

An employer must take the necessary measures to prevent the following health impairments:

health impairments due to things such as raw materials, gases, vapors, dusts, insufficient oxygen in the air, and pathogens;

health impairments due to things such as radiation, high temperatures, low temperatures, ultrasonic waves, noises, vibration, abnormal atmospheric pressures;

health impairments due to operations such as gauge monitoring, precision work, etc.;

health impairments due to exhaust fumes, waste fluids, or solid wastes.

As regards the constructions and other workspaces where workers are engaged in work, an employer must take the necessary measures for the maintenance of passages, floor and stair areas and the necessary measures for ventilation, lighting, illumination, heating, damp-proofing, rest, evacuation and sanitation, or other measures required to maintain the health, moral, order and lives of workers.

An employer must take the necessary measures to prevent industrial injuries from arising out of the work activities of workers.

If there is an imminent danger of an industrial injury occurring, an employer must immediately stop operations and take the necessary measures to have the workers evacuate from the workspace.

An employer that carries out a job as specified by Cabinet Order involved in a business undertaking categorized as the construction industry or in any other industry specified by Cabinet Order must take the following measures in order to prevent an industrial injury from occurring in the event that measures for rescuing and protecting persons engaged in work are taken in association with the occurrence of something such as an explosion or fire:

installation and management of the necessary machinery or other such equipment to rescue and protect persons engaged in work;

training in the necessary things related to the rescue and protection of persons engaged in work;

undertaking the necessary things related to the rescue and protection of persons engaged in work in preparation for things such as an explosion or fire, beyond as set forth in the preceding two items.

Pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, an employer as prescribed in the preceding paragraph must appoint a person to manage technical issues from among persons holding the qualifications specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and have that person manage the technical issues that are among the measures referred to in that paragraph.

Workers, and persons engaged in work, other than workers, who are engaged in work on a job at the same site as workers, must observe the necessary rules in response to the measures taken under the provisions of Articles 20 through 25 and of paragraph (1) of the preceding Article that the employer takes.

The measures required to be taken by the employer pursuant to the provisions of Articles 20 through 25 and of paragraph (1) of Article 25-2, and the measures required to be observed by workers, and by persons engaged in work, other than workers, who are engaged in work on a job at the same site as workers, pursuant to the provisions of the preceding Article are prescribed by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Consideration must be given, in preparing the Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare referred to in the preceding paragraph, so as not to run counter to the purport of laws and regulations concerning the prevention of environmental pollution (meaning environmental pollution defined in paragraph (3) of Article 2 of the Basic Act for Environmental Pollution Control (Act No. 91 of 1993)) and other disasters involving the general public that are closely related to industrial injuries.

The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare is to release the necessary technical guidelines for each industry and work operation to ensure the appropriate and effective implementation of the measures that the employer is required to take pursuant to the provisions of Articles 20 through 25 and of paragraph (1) of Article 25-2.

The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare is to make special considerations for middle-aged and elderly workers in preparing the technical guidelines specified in the preceding paragraph.

The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare is to release guidelines to enable employers that manufacture or handle the chemical substances as follows that are prescribed by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare to prevent the impairment of workers' health by those chemical substances:

chemical substances related to recommendations under the provisions of paragraph (4) of Article 57-4 or instructions under the provisions of paragraph (1) of Article 57-5;

chemical substances other than those set forth in the preceding item, which could cause significant impairment of worker's health such as cancer.

Having released technical guidelines or guidelines for preventing the impairment of workers' health pursuant to the provisions of the paragraph (1) or the preceding paragraph, and on finding that it is necessary to do so, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare may provide the necessary guidance on those technical guidelines or guidelines for preventing the impairment of workers' health to employers and associations thereof.

An employer, pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, must endeavor to assess things such as the potential for danger or harm from things such as constructions, equipment, raw materials, gases, vapor, and dust,and from work activities and other duties (excluding the things such as the potential for danger or harm due to substances specified by Cabinet Order pursuant to paragraph (1) of Article 57 and substance subject to notice prescribed in paragraph (1) of Article 57-2), and to take the necessary measures to prevent the endangerment of workers or the impairment of workers' health, in addition to taking the measures under the provisions of this Act or an order under this Act, based on the results of those investigations; provided, however, that for those of such investigations that are unrelated to chemical substances, preparations containing chemical substances, and other things that could endanger a worker or impair a worker's health, this is limited to an employer that is in the manufacturing industry or any other industry specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare is to release the necessary guidelines in connection with the measures in the preceding paragraph in order to ensure their appropriate and effective implementation, beyond what is provided for in paragraphs (1) and (3) of the preceding Article.

The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare may provide the necessary guidance and assistance to employers and associations thereof in accordance with the guidelines referred to in the preceding paragraph.

A principal employer must give the necessary guidance so that related contractors and the persons engaged in work associated with related contractors do not contravene the provisions of this Act or an order under this Act in connection with the relevant job.

On finding that a related contractor or a person engaged in work associated with a related contractor has violated the provisions of this Act or an order based on this Act in connection with the relevant job, the principal employer must give the instructions necessary to rectify this.

A related contractor or a person engaged in work associated with a related contractor that has been given instructions as referred to in the preceding paragraph must abide by those instructions.

A principal employer with a business undertaking categorized as the construction industry must, when persons engaged in work associated with a related contractor are doing work on a job involved in that undertaking at a site specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, such as a site where there is a risk of soil collapse, etc., or a site where there is a risk of machinery or other such equipment overturning, give technical guidance and take other necessary measures to ensure that the measures that the related contractor is to take in order to prevent dangers associated with that site are being taken appropriately.

In order to prevent industrial injuries from occurring as a result of work being carried out at the same site by the persons engaged in work who are workers of the specified principal employer (including, if there are persons engaged in work associated with that 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 related contractors, a specified principal employer must take the necessary measures concerning the following things:

establishing and running a consultative organization;

liaising and coordinating between related work;

inspecting the worksite;

providing guidance and assistance for the education conducted by the related contractors for the workers' safety and health;

if it is a specified principal employer with an undertaking categorized as a business type specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in which it is usual for the site where a job is carried out to differ from job to job preparing plans for work processes and plans for the arrangement of things such as machines and equipment at the worksite, as well as providing instructions on the measures that related contractors must take, based on this Act or an order hereunder, in connection with the work for which the relevant machines, equipment, or other things are used;

anything that is necessary for preventing such industrial injuries, beyond as set forth in the preceding items.

If an original orderer (meaning an orderer that places an order without having been contracted for that job by any other person; the same applies hereinafter) of a job involved in a specified undertaking, other than a specified principal employer, has contracted out, to two or more contractors, a job involved in a specified undertaking which is being carried out at a single site, and the persons engaged in work (limited to workers and to persons engaged in work, other than workers, who are engaged in work on a job at the same site as workers) associated with the two or more contractors involved in that job will work at that site, that original orderer, pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, must designate one person from among those of the contractors that constitute employers carrying out that job themselves, as the person that is to take the measures prescribed in the preceding paragraph. The same applies to a person that has been contracted to undertake all of the jobs involved in a specified undertaking being carried out at a single site, other than a specified principal employer, and that has contracted out those jobs to two or more contractors.

If a designation under the provisions of the preceding paragraph is not made, the Chief of the Labour Standard Inspection Offices makes the designation referred to in that paragraph.

When a designation under the provisions of paragraph (2) or the preceding paragraph has been made, the designated employer must take the measures provided for in paragraph (1) for all persons engaged in work on the jobs at that site. In such a case, the provisions of that paragraph do not apply to the designated employer and employers other than the designated employer.