The Labor Ministry publishes annual reports on Labor Standards Inspection Offices’ activities. Among the items that attract companies’ interest, this article focuses on common rule violations found during regular inspections.
[1] Ten most common violations found by inspectors
Labor Standards Inspectors conducted a total of 171,528 onsite inspections at companies in 2022. Among them, the number of “regular inspections” carried out in line with monthly schedule was 142,611 (83.1%). Inspections conducted in response to reports from workers totaled 16,639 (9.7%), while the number of re-inspections was 12,278 (7.2%). As the data indicates, regular inspections make up most of the labor authorities’ inspections.
Following chart shows most common violations discovered during regular inspections. They are mostly violations of health and safety rules, such as the rules regarding health examinations and safety standards. Breaches of rules regarding work hours and extra wages were also common.
|
|
Item |
FY2022 |
FY2021 |
|
1 |
Medical checkups (Industrial Safety and Health Act, Articles 66 to 66-6) |
29,974 |
22,139 |
|
2 |
Safety standards (Industrial Safety and Health Act, Articles 20 to 25) |
27,041 |
23,823 |
|
3 |
Work hours (Labor Standards Act, Article 32) |
22,305 |
18,007 |
|
4 |
Extra wages (Labor Standards Act, Article 37) |
20,554 |
16,521 |
|
5 |
Annual paid leave (Labor Standards Act, Article 39) |
14,264 |
9,783 |
|
6 |
Explicit statement of working conditions (Labor Standards Act, Article 15) |
13,853 |
10,025 |
|
7 |
Wage Ledger (Labor Standards Act, Article 108) |
12,254 |
10,030 |
|
8 |
Management book of annual paid leave (Ordinance for Enforcement of the Labor Standards Act, Article 24-7) |
11,264 |
7,370 |
|
9 |
Rules of Employment (Labor Standards Act, Article 89) |
9,546 |
9,148 |
|
10 |
Assessing of working hours (Industrial Safety and Health Act, Article 66-8-3) |
8,837 |
6,414 |
[2] Employers should be particularly careful about violations of the rule on “explicit statement of working conditions” after April 2024
Rules on “explicit statement of working conditions” have been revised and implemented on April 2024, adding new items that must be explained to workers. Inspectors will check this rule from the new fiscal year, in addition to existing items. This rule is applied to employment contracts signed on April 1, 2024, onward. Please ensure that a new contract form has been prepared.
Please also check the items not covered by the requirement of explicit statement comply with laws and regulations and avoid instruction of labor standards inspectors.
[Reference]
Labor Standards Inspection Annual Report
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/bunya/roudoukijun/kantoku01/
*The contents are based on laws and regulations as of the date of this article.
