by Yoneyama, 4 Oct 2021

This is the 3rd part of my Japan Social Insurance series, please read my 1st and 2nd part if you didn`t read the previous information yet.

Scheduled working hours（所定労働時間）and Statutory working hours（法定労働時間）

Your employer’s Rules of Employment (就業規則) describes the company’s scheduled working hours or starting time/ending time of the daily work as well as recess and lunch time.

Japan’s Labor Standards Law stipulates maximum statutory working hours as follows:

            Net daily working hours except for recess and lunch time         8 hours

            Net weekly working hours except for recess and lunch time      40 hours

If daily net working hours exceed 6 hours, the law requires employer to provide employees with a recess or lunch time of 45 minutes or longer. If daily net working hours exceed 8 hours, the law requires employer to provide a recess or lunch time of 1 hour or longer. The law also requires the employer to set at least one day off per week. If your company and its labor union or the representative of the employees reached an agreement of overtime work, which is called 36 kyotei (Article 36 of Labor Standards Law), your employer is allowed to order you for overtime work. 

Your employer, of course, has to pay for the extra hours.  If the extra hours are over and above the aforementioned statutory working hours, an hourly rate should be 125% or higher.  If your employer asks you to work on a statutory holiday (normally Sunday, but some companies define it as Saturday), the rate goes up to 135% or higher. Furthermore, if overtime work continues through the midnight that is defined by the law from 10 pm through 5 am in the following morning, the hourly rate has to go up to 150% or higher. If you happen to work in the midnight of a statutory holiday, its hourly rate is 160% or higher!

Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance (労災保険 (Rosai Hoken))

When you are hired, your employer has to apply at a local Labor Standards Inspection Office for your Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance (IACI) as well as your Employment Insurance.Although you have to bear a minor portion of your Employment Insurance premium out of your salary, your IACI premium is 100% paid by your employer.This IACI covers your risk of suffering from accidents not only during the work hours at your company but also commuting both ways as well as business trips etc.

The following compensations are included in IACI:

l  Medical treatment compensation

l  Temporary absence from work compensation

l  Disability compensation

l  Nursing care compensation

l  Surviving family compensation

Your employer has to file a report of accident first once you got an accident at the company or during the commuting. Then, in order for you to receive benefits out of the above compensation, you or your surviving family members need to visit your local Labor Standards Inspection Office to apply for benefit with required evidence. Medical Benefits are benefits in kind where care and medicine can be supplied free of charge at Rosai (Industrial Accident Compensation) hospitals, designated medical facilities and pharmacies, etc.