Labor Standards Act

①Working conditions must be conditions that meet the needs of workers to live a life worthy of a human being.

②The standards for working conditions prescribed in this Act serve as minimum standards; a party to a labor relationship must not cause working conditions to deteriorate using these standards as the grounds for doing so, but instead must endeavor to improve them.

①The worker and the employer are to decide working conditions on an equal footing.

②Workers and employers must comply with collective agreements, rules of employment, and labor contracts, and each worker or employer must sincerely perform their duties.

An employer must not use a worker's nationality, creed, or social status as a basis for discriminatory treatment regarding wages, working hours, or other working conditions.

An employer must not use the fact that a worker is female as a basis for discriminatory treatment in comparison to men regarding wages.

An employer must not force a worker to work against their will through the use of physical violence, intimidation, confinement, or any other means that unjustly restricts that worker's mental or physical freedom.

It is prohibited for any person to profit from intervening in the employment of others in the course of trade, beyond what is permitted by law.

An employer must not refuse a worker's request for time needed to exercise the right to vote or any other civil right, or to perform a public duty during working hours; provided, however, that the employer may alter the time requested by the worker as long as the alteration does not hinder the exercise of that right, or the performance of that public duty.

The term "worker" as used in this Act means a person who is employed at a business or office (referred to below as a "business") and to whom wages are paid, regardless of the type of occupation.

The term employer as used in this Act means a person in control of the business, a person responsible for managing the business, or any other person acting on behalf of the person in control of the business in particulars relating to the workers of the business.

The term wage as used in this Act means wages, salary, allowances, bonuses, and anything else that an employer pays to a worker as remuneration for labor, regardless of what it is called.

①The term average wage as used in this Act means the amount of money calculated as the total amount of wages over the 3-month period preceding the day on which grounds for the calculation of the average wage came into existence divided by the total number of days during that period; provided, however, that the average wage must not fall below the amount calculated in accordance with any of the following items:

②If there is a pay period end date, the period referred to in the preceding paragraph commences on the most recent pay period end date.

③If a period falling under one of the following items is a part of the period provided for in the preceding two paragraphs, the number of days constituting that period is deducted from the period referred to in the preceding two paragraphs and wages from during that period are deducted from the total amount of wages referred to in the preceding two paragraphs:

④Wages that have been paid on an ad hoc basis, wages that are paid after every period of more than 3 months, and wages paid in a form other than currency and not falling within a certain range are not included in the calculation of the total amount of wages referred to in paragraph (1).

⑤If wages are paid in a form other than currency, Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare prescribes the necessary particulars in connection with the range of the wages that are to be included in the calculation of the total amount of wages referred to in paragraph (1) and the assessment of their value.

⑥For a worker who has been hired for less than 3 months, the period referred to in paragraph (1) means the period after that worker's hiring.

⑦The average wage for a person hired on a day-to-day basis is prescribed by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare according to the kind of business or occupation in which that person is engaged.

⑧If an average wage cannot be calculated in accordance with paragraphs (1) through (6), the average wage is as prescribed by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare.