The law collection

The legal minimum for working conditions: working hours, breaks and days off, leave, wages and notice of dismissal.

It guarantees low-paid workers a lowest wage, set by the hour, that their employer must pay: one for every region of Japan and, for some businesses or occupations, a higher one.

Sets out the State's labor policy and gives employers a set of duties: equal chances regardless of age in recruitment, reports on the foreign nationals they hire or lose and on large job losses, and measures against harmful conduct at work by someone in a superior position (commonly called power harassment).

It bans discrimination by sex at work, from recruitment to dismissal, protects women workers from dismissal for marrying and from dismissal or other disadvantage over pregnancy and childbirth, and makes employers act against sexual harassment at the workplace.

Protection for workers' pay when a business fails or a worker leaves: when an employer goes bankrupt or another event a Cabinet Order sets happens, the government pays unpaid wages within a range a Cabinet Order sets; the employer owes interest on wages still unpaid after a worker leaves; and workers' savings an employer holds as deposits must be safeguarded.

The rules for businesses that send the workers they employ to work under another person's direction and for that person (worker dispatch, 労働者派遣), to keep that business properly run and to protect the dispatched workers and their employment.

Leave and working arrangements that let a worker raising a child or caring for a family member keep their job: childcare leave, caregiver leave, days off to look after a child or a family member, limits on overtime and night work, shorter hours, and the measures employers must take.

Balanced treatment for part-time and fixed-term workers: no unreasonable gap in pay and other treatment between them and the employer's workers with a standard employment status, an explanation of any gap on request, a way into standard employment, and help from the director of the prefectural labour bureau in settling disputes.

The rules of the individual labor contract: how it is formed and changed, and when a dismissal is void.

Fair dealing for self-employed people and one-person companies with no employees who take on work from businesses: terms stated in writing or electronically, payment on time, no unfair treatment, and a working environment free of harassment, among other rules.

A Ministerial Order setting out details that the Labor Standards Act leaves to an Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.