Minimum Wage Act

最低賃金法（さいていちんぎんほう）

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.

Text in force since
Promulgated
Articles: 42
Amendments on the way: 0

Read the text Open on e-Gov

What this law does

An employer must pay every worker covered by a minimum wage (最低賃金) at least its amount, which is set by the hour. A labor contract that sets lower pay is void to that extent, and the contract is treated as providing the minimum wage instead. The employer need not pay for hours or days the worker did not work for their own reasons, or was kept from work by the employer for a legitimate reason.(Art. 3(1), Art. 4(1), Art. 4(2), Art. 4(4)) (the provisions it rests on)

Read the full overview

Some pay does not count toward the minimum: pay other than pay made at intervals of one month or less, and pay other than for normal working hours or working days, in each case as an Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (厚生労働省令) specifies, and any pay a particular minimum wage itself says is not counted. Where pay is made in something other than money, or the employer deducts the cost of meals or other things it provides, those things must be valued properly.(Art. 4(3), Art. 5(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
A regional minimum wage (地域別最低賃金) must be decided for every region of Japan, taking into account workers' cost of living and wages in the region and what ordinary businesses can afford to pay; the cost of living is weighed so that it fits with public assistance (生活保護) and workers can maintain a wholesome and cultured minimum standard of living. The Act itself contains no amount: each is decided, and revised when needed, by the Director of a Prefectural Labor Bureau (都道府県労働局長) for a region inside that bureau's district, or by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare for a case reaching beyond one bureau or designated as national, after hearing the opinion of a Minimum Wages Council (最低賃金審議会).(Art. 9(1), Art. 9(2), Art. 9(3), Art. 10(1), Art. 12(1), Art. 30(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
Before a regional or specified minimum wage is decided, the gist of the council's opinion is publicly notified, and workers in the region, business or occupation concerned, or their employers, may object within 15 days of that notice; no decision is made before then. A decision setting or revising either kind takes effect 30 days after the decision is publicly notified, or on a later day the decision names.(Art. 11(1), Art. 11(2), Art. 11(4), Art. 14(1), Art. 14(2), Art. 15(3), Art. 19(1), Art. 19(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
A specified minimum wage (特定最低賃金) for a particular business or occupation may be decided when representatives of the workers or employers ask for one and the Minister or Director finds it necessary; they then decide it after hearing a Minimum Wages Council. It must be higher than the regional minimum wage where the employer's workplace is. A worker covered by two or more minimum wages is owed the highest.(Art. 15(1), Art. 15(2), Art. 16(1), Art. 6(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
An employer covered by a minimum wage must make its outline known to workers, by displaying it at all times somewhere easy to see in the workplace or by other means, as an Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare provides.(Art. 8(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

Article 1 states the law's own purpose

Paying the minimum wagePay that does not countReduced minimum wagePosting the minimum wageRegional minimum wageSpecified minimum wageReporting a violationPenalties

42 144 20 18 36

Amendments

A Japanese law is changed by another law or order that rewrites it — an . No amendment to this law is waiting to come into force. Its amendment history is below. The amendments this site has read the changes of are on this law's amendments page, provision by provision, in Japanese and English.

3 amendments already in force

1 June 2025
The text on this site
Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Penal Code, etc.
刑法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整理等に関する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov
17 June 2022
Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Penal Code, etc.
刑法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整理等に関する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov
1 October 2012
Act Partially Amending the Act on Securing the Proper Operation of Worker Dispatching Businesses and Improving the Working Conditions of Dispatched Workers, etc.
労働者派遣事業の適正な運営の確保及び派遣労働者の就業条件の整備等に関する法律等の一部を改正する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

Who it applies to

It applies to

Workers: anyone employed by a business or office and paid wages, whatever the kind of work, as Article 9 of the Labor Standards Act (労働基準法) defines them.(Art. 2(1)(i), Labor Standards Act Art. 9(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
Employers — the business owner, its managers and anyone acting for the owner on matters concerning its workers, as Article 10 of the Labor Standards Act defines them — who must pay at least the minimum wage and make it known.(Art. 2(1)(ii), Labor Standards Act Art. 10(1), Art. 4(1), Art. 8(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

1 more

Dispatched workers (派遣中の労働者, as the Worker Dispatching Act, a separate Act, defines them), who are owed the regional minimum wage of the place where the client's workplace is, and any specified minimum wage covering the client's kind of business or the occupation of like workers at that workplace.(Art. 13(1), Art. 18(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

It does not apply to

People employed in a business or office that employs only relatives living together, and domestic workers (家事使用人): the Act's definition of a worker leaves them out.(Art. 2(1)(i)) (the provisions it rests on)

Special rules and exceptions (4)

With the permission of the Director of the Prefectural Labor Bureau, an employer may pay certain workers less: the minimum wage is reduced by a rate an Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare sets in light of their working capacity and other circumstances. The workers are those whose working capacity is markedly low because of a mental or physical disability, those on probation, certain trainees in accredited basic vocational training under the Vocational Abilities Development Promotion Act (職業能力開発促進法), a separate Act, and those doing light work or others the Order names.(Art. 7(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
When a specified minimum wage is decided and workers or employers have objected, the decision may, on the council's opinion, put off its application to some businesses for a limited period, or set a different amount for them.(Art. 15(3), Art. 15(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
Mariners (船員) covered by the Mariners Act (船員法), a separate Act, have no regional minimum wage, and Articles 6(2), 16 and 17 do not apply to them. Instead the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism or the Director of a District Transport Bureau (地方運輸局長, including the Director of a Transport Supervision Department, 運輸監理部長) may set specified minimum wages for mariners when needed in light of mariners' cost of living, the wages of similar mariners and what ordinary businesses can pay, after hearing the Council of Transport Policy (交通政策審議会) or a council a Cabinet Order (政令) names.(Art. 35(1), Art. 35(3), Art. 36(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
For mariners, those transport officials and officers in charge of mariners' labor affairs (船員労務官) take the place of the labor officials, a minimum wage may be set by the hour, day, week or month, and the reduced rate of Article 7 also reaches mariners with particularly short scheduled working hours. A mariner dispatched on board (乗組み派遣船員, as the Mariners' Employment Security Act, a separate Act, defines them) is owed the specified minimum wage covering the business of whoever receives the dispatch, or the occupation of like mariners it employs.(Art. 35(2), Art. 7(1)(iv), Art. 35(8)) (the provisions it rests on)

How it is enforced (6)

Failing to pay at least the regional minimum wage is punishable by a fine of up to 500,000 yen. The fine covers the regional minimum wage and the specified minimum wages for mariners (船員), not other specified minimum wages; a worker owed a higher specified minimum wage is still protected by this fine up to the regional amount.(Art. 40(1), Art. 6(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
A fine of up to 300,000 yen applies to an employer that fails to make the regional minimum wage (or a mariners' specified minimum wage) known, to anyone who fails to report or reports falsely when required, and to anyone who refuses, obstructs or evades an entry or inspection, or does not answer, or answers falsely, an inspector's questions.(Art. 41(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
A worker may report a breach of this Act, or of an order made under it, at their workplace to the Director of the Prefectural Labor Bureau, the head of the Labor Standards Inspection Office (労働基準監督署長) or a labor standards inspector (労働基準監督官), and ask for it to be put right. Dismissing or otherwise disadvantaging a worker for making such a report is forbidden, and punishable by imprisonment (拘禁刑) of up to six months or a fine of up to 300,000 yen.(Art. 34(1), Art. 34(2), Art. 39(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
As far as needed to achieve the Act's purpose, labor standards inspectors may enter an employer's workplace, inspect books and other items and question the people concerned; they must carry and show their identification, and this power is not one of criminal investigation. For offences under this Act, though, they act as judicial police officers under the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法), a separate Act.(Art. 32(1), Art. 32(2), Art. 32(3), Art. 33(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Directors of Prefectural Labor Bureaus may require employers or workers to report on wages, as far as the Act's purpose needs.(Art. 29(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
Where an offence is committed in the course of a company's or individual's business by its representative, agent, employee or other staff, the company or individual is fined as well as the person who did it.(Art. 42(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

How it connects to other laws

Cites this lawLawThis law cites it

0
Labor Standards Act
3

It also names 5 laws not yet held here.

Where the translation comes from

136
47
60not translated

The Ministry of Justice's translation is shown only where the Japanese it translates matches the law in force today. Everywhere else the English is a machine translation, marked on the paragraph itself.

Only the Japanese is the law, and no lawyer has reviewed the machine translation.

Sources

Everything this page rests on

e-Gov (Digital Agency)最低賃金法 — the text in force from 2025-06-01Original
e-Gov (Digital Agency)最低賃金法 — revision historyOriginal
Japanese Law Translation, Ministry of JusticeMinimum Wage Act — Ministry of Justice translationOriginal
Machine translation, not official
Written for this site with AIEnglish titles of amending laws, written for this site
Written for this site with AIDescriptions of each law, written for this site
Worked out by this site from e-Gov's text

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