Act on the Collection, etc. of Insurance Premiums of Labor Insurance

The business cooperatives, or federations of cooperatives, set forth in Article 3 of the Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Cooperatives Act (Act No. 181 of 1949) or other associations of business operators or federations thereof (excluding associations or federations without legal personality for which no representative is appointed; the same applies hereinafter) may accept the entrustment of the business operators that are the members of the association or the members of an association constituting the federation or other business operators specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (excluding the business operators employing workers in the number exceeding the number specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare), and process the payment of the labor insurance premiums and other matters concerning labor insurance to be conducted by those business operators (excluding the matters concerning stamp insurance premiums; hereinafter referred to as the "labor insurance administrative affairs") pursuant to the provisions of this Chapter.

The association of business operators or the federation thereof, when seeking to conduct the services prescribed in the preceding paragraph, must obtain the approval of the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare.

The association of business operators or the federation thereof which has obtained the approval set forth in the preceding paragraph (hereinafter referred to as the "labor insurance administrative affairs association"), in seeking to discontinue the services prescribed in paragraph (1), must notify the fact to the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare 60 days prior to the discontinuance of the services.

The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare may revoke the approval set forth in paragraph (2) if the labor insurance administrative affairs association violates a provision of this Act, the Industrial Accident Insurance Act, or the Employment Insurance Act or Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare based on any of those Acts (hereinafter referred to as the "laws and regulations concerning labor insurance"), or if the Minister finds that the association fails to perform the processing of the labor insurance administration affairs that should be conducted by the association or that the processing by the association is significantly unjust.

The government may give notification of collection of labor insurance premiums and any other notifications, and make payment of the refund money, to be given or made pursuant to the provisions of the laws and regulations concerning labor insurance to the business operators that have entrusted the processing of the labor insurance administration affairs to the labor insurance administration affairs association, to the labor insurance administrative affairs association. In this case, the notification of collection of labor insurance premiums and any other notification given and the payment of the refund money made to the labor insurance administration affairs association are deemed to have been given or made to the business operator.

When the business operator has delivered money to the labor insurance administrative affairs association, based on the entrustment set forth in Article 33, paragraph (1), for the payment of the labor insurance premiums or other money collected pursuant to the laws and regulations concerning labor insurance, the labor insurance administrative affairs association is to be responsible, to the extent of the amount of the money, for the payment of the collected money to the government.

When the government collects the surcharges or arrears pursuant to the provisions of the laws and regulations concerning labor insurance, and the collection is made due to any cause attributable to the labor insurance administrative affairs association, the labor insurance administrative affairs association is to be responsible, to that extent, for the payment of the collected money to the government.

With regard to the collected money payable by the labor insurance administrative affairs association pursuant to the preceding two paragraphs, limited to the cases where residual amount remains after the disposition pursuant to the provision of Article 27, paragraph (3) (including as applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Article 12-3, paragraph (3) and Article 31, paragraph (4) of the Industrial Accident Insurance Act and Article 10-4, paragraph (3) of the Employment Insurance Act) is taken against the labor insurance administrative affairs association, the government may collect the remaining amount from the employer.

The labor insurance administrative affairs association is deemed to be a business operator with regard to the application of the provisions of Article 12-3, paragraph (2) of the Industrial Accident Insurance Act and Article 10-4, paragraph (2) of the Employment Insurance Act.

The labor insurance administration affairs association, pursuant to the provisions of Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, must keep in its office accounting books stating the matters concerning the labor insurance administrative affairs it processes.