Act on Public Consultants on Social and Labour Insurance

For a person qualified to be a labor and social security attorney to become a labor and social security attorney, the person must be registered in the roll of labor and social security attorneys with the person's name, date of birth, address, and other particulars specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

A labor and social security attorney (including a person who is going to become a member of a labor and social security attorney corporation) who intends to carry out, as a business and in return for remuneration at the request of another person, the affairs prescribed in Article 2 must determine an office (in the case of a person who is going to become a member of a labor and social security attorney corporation, an office of that labor and social security attorney corporation) and, in advance, be registered in the roll of labor and social security attorneys with, in addition to the particulars prescribed in the preceding paragraph, the name and location of the office and other particulars specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

A labor and social security attorney who works at a place of business (including an office of a labor and social security attorney or a labor and social security attorney corporation; the same applies hereinafter) and engages in the affairs prescribed in Article 2 (hereinafter referred to as an "employed labor and social security attorney") must be registered in the roll of labor and social security attorneys with, in addition to the particulars prescribed in paragraph (1), the name and location of that place of business and other particulars specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

The roll of labor and social security attorneys is kept at the Federation.

Registration in the roll of labor and social security attorneys is carried out by the Federation.

When a change has occurred in any particulars registered in the roll of labor and social security attorneys, a labor and social security attorney must, without delay, apply for registration of the change.

A person who intends to receive registration under Article 14-2, paragraph (1) must submit to the Federation, via the labor and social security attorney's association specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, a written application for registration stating the particulars prescribed in that paragraph and other particulars specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, attaching documents certifying that the person is qualified to be a labor and social security attorney.

When the Federation has received an application for registration under the preceding Article, it must, if it finds that the applicant is qualified to be a labor and social security attorney and does not fall under any of the items of the following Article, register the applicant in the roll of labor and social security attorneys without delay, and must refuse the registration if it finds that the applicant is not qualified to be a labor and social security attorney or falls under any of the items of that Article. When it intends to refuse registration, it must do so on the basis of a resolution of the Qualifications Screening Board prescribed in Article 25-37.

When the Federation intends to refuse registration under the preceding paragraph, it must in advance notify the applicant to that effect and give the applicant an opportunity to explain, in person or through an agent, within a reasonable period.

When the Federation has registered an applicant in the roll of labor and social security attorneys under paragraph (1), it must issue a labor and social security attorney identification card to the applicant, and when it has refused registration under that paragraph, it must notify the applicant to that effect in a document stating the reasons.

A person who falls under any of the following items may not receive registration as a labor and social security attorney:

a person who, by way of disciplinary action, has been subject to suspension of business as an attorney, a certified public accountant, a certified public tax accountant or an administrative scrivener, and who is currently subject to that disposition;

a person who has received a decision under Article 48, paragraph (1) of the Certified Public Tax Accountant Act to the effect that the person should have been subject to the disposition listed in Article 44, item (ii) of that Act, and for whom the period made clear under the second sentence of that paragraph has not elapsed;

a person who is unable to perform the business of a labor and social security attorney due to a mental or physical disorder;

a person who has been subject, by the day before the day on which the person filed an application for registration under Article 14-5, to a disposition for delinquency under the provisions of the Act on the Collection, etc. of Insurance Premiums of Labor Insurance (Act No. 84 of 1969), the Health Insurance Act (Act No. 70 of 1922), the Mariners Insurance Act (Act No. 73 of 1939), the Employees' Pension Insurance Act (Act No. 115 of 1954), the National Health Insurance Act (Act No. 192 of 1958), the National Pension Act (Act No. 141 of 1959), the Act on Assurance of Medical Care for Elderly People (Act No. 80 of 1982) or the Long-Term Care Insurance Act (Act No. 123 of 1997) with respect to insurance premiums for which the person is under an obligation to pay under the provisions of those Acts (including the national health insurance tax under the provisions of the Local Tax Act (Act No. 226 of 1950); hereinafter in this item and Article 29 referred to as "insurance premiums"), and who, without justifiable grounds, has continued to be delinquent for a period of three months or more from the date on which the person was subject to that disposition in all of the insurance premiums whose due dates have arrived on or after the date of that disposition (limited to insurance premiums that the person subject to that disposition is under an obligation to pay under the Act providing that the person is under the obligation to pay the insurance premiums concerned in the disposition);

a person who is likely to harm the credibility or dignity of labor and social security attorneys, or any other person who lacks suitability as a labor and social security attorney in light of the duties of a labor and social security attorney.

A person who has been refused registration under Article 14-6, paragraph (1) and is dissatisfied with that disposition may file a request for review with the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare.

A person who has applied for registration under Article 14-5 may, if no disposition has been made even after three months have elapsed from the date of the application, file a request for review with the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, treating the registration as having been refused. In this case, the Federation is deemed to have refused that registration under Article 14-6, paragraph (1) on the day of the request for review.

In the cases referred to in the preceding two paragraphs, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare is deemed to be a superior administrative agency of the Federation for the purpose of applying Article 25, paragraphs (2) and (3) and Article 46, paragraph (2) of the Administrative Complaint Review Act.

The Federation may revoke the registration of a person who has been registered as a labor and social security attorney, on the basis of a resolution of the Qualifications Screening Board prescribed in Article 25-37, if the person falls under any of the following items:

When it has become clear that the person obtained the registration without disclosing, or by making a false disclosure of, important matters concerning qualification to receive registration;

When the person has come to fall under the category of persons prescribed in Article 14-7, item (iii);

When the person's whereabouts have been unknown continuously for two years or more.

When the Federation has revoked a registration under the preceding paragraph on the ground that the person has come to fall under item (i) or item (ii) of that paragraph, it must notify the person subject to that disposition to that effect in a document stating the reasons.

A person whose registration has been revoked under paragraph (1) and who is dissatisfied with that disposition may file a request for review with the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare. In this case, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare is deemed to be a superior administrative agency of the Federation for the purpose of applying Article 25, paragraphs (2) and (3) and Article 46, paragraph (1) of the Administrative Complaint Review Act.

The Federation must, without delay, cancel the registration of a labor and social security attorney if the labor and social security attorney falls under any of the following items:

When an application for cancellation of registration has been made;

When the labor and social security attorney has died;

When the labor and social security attorney has been subject to a disposition of revocation of registration under paragraph (1) of the preceding Article;

In addition to what is prescribed in the preceding item, when the labor and social security attorney has ceased to be qualified to be a labor and social security attorney by reason of having come to fall under any of Article 5, items (ii) through (v) and items (vii) through (ix), or for any other reason.

If a labor and social security attorney has come to fall under item (ii) or item (iv) of the preceding paragraph, that person, the person's legal representative or the person's heir must, without delay, notify the Federation to that effect.

When the Federation has made a registration under Article 14-6, paragraph (1), and when it has cancelled a registration under paragraph (1) of the preceding Article, it must, without delay, give public notice to that effect in the Official Gazette.

When a labor and social security attorney intends to receive, in the labor and social security attorney's registration, an annotation to the effect that the labor and social security attorney has passed the dispute resolution procedure representation business examination (hereinafter referred to as the "annotation of dispute resolution procedure representation business"), the labor and social security attorney must submit to the Federation, via the labor and social security attorney's association specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, a written application for annotation stating the labor and social security attorney's name and other particulars specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, with a document certifying that the labor and social security attorney has passed the dispute resolution procedure representation business examination attached.

When the Federation has received an application under the preceding Article, it must, without delay, make the annotation of dispute resolution procedure representation business in the registration of the labor and social security attorney concerned.

When the Federation has made an annotation in the roll of labor and social security attorneys under the preceding paragraph, it must issue to the applicant a labor and social security attorney identification card bearing an annotation to the effect that the person is a specified labor and social security attorney (hereinafter referred to as the "specified labor and social security attorney identification card").

A labor and social security attorney who has been issued a specified labor and social security attorney identification card under the preceding paragraph must, without delay, return the labor and social security attorney identification card to the Federation.

If it becomes clear that a person who has received the annotation of dispute resolution procedure representation business received that annotation by deception or other wrongful means, the Federation must cancel that annotation.

The provisions of Article 14-9, paragraph (2) apply mutatis mutandis to the cancellation of an annotation under the preceding paragraph.

The provisions of Article 14-11 apply mutatis mutandis to the annotation of dispute resolution procedure representation business and the cancellation of that annotation.

When the annotation of dispute resolution procedure representation business of a specified labor and social security attorney has been cancelled, that person must, without delay, return the specified labor and social security attorney identification card to the Federation.

When a specified labor and social security attorney identification card has been returned under the preceding paragraph, the Federation must, without delay, reissue the labor and social security attorney identification card to the person referred to in that paragraph.

When the registration of a labor and social security attorney has been cancelled, that person, the person's legal representative or the person's heir must, without delay, return the labor and social security attorney identification card or the specified labor and social security attorney identification card to the Federation. The same applies where a labor and social security attorney has been subject to a disposition of suspension of business under Article 25-2 or Article 25-3.

When a labor and social security attorney falling under the second sentence of the preceding paragraph has become able to conduct the business to which the disposition relates, the Federation must, upon the labor and social security attorney's application, reissue the labor and social security attorney identification card or the specified labor and social security attorney identification card to that person.

In addition to what is prescribed in this Chapter, matters necessary with regard to the registration of labor and social security attorneys are specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.