Overview
- The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced on Wednesday that it will implement revised inspection and support practices on September 1 to change how overtime is overseen.
- Labor offices will stop using a blanket practice of pushing firms to cut overtime to within 45 hours a month and will instead focus inspections on whether workplaces are actually carrying out health and welfare measures set out in 36 agreements.
- The government will set up specialist consultation desks at nationwide ‘work-style reform’ support centers and deploy joint outreach teams of those centers and labor-inspection staff to help companies, especially small firms, draft 36 agreements and special clauses.
- Labor unions immediately criticized the policy as likely to encourage longer hours, with Rengo’s president calling the decision “very regrettable,” and commentators warned the move revives a wider debate over the balance between hours limits and productivity.
- The change is an administrative shift reflecting LDP recommendations and the July growth strategy rather than a law change, and its impact on worker health and real overtime levels will depend on how strictly health measures are enforced at individual workplaces.