Starting Up Your Business in Osaka: Introduction
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1. Vacation
(1) Annual Paid Leave
An employer must grant annual paid leave of 10 working days to an employee who has been employed continuously for 6 months and who has worked at least 80 percent of the total working days. The entitlement to annual paid leave expires in 2 years from the date of grant due to the statute of limitations. The table below shows the relationship between the service years and the number of annual paid leave days granted.
| Service years | 0.5 years | 1.5 years | 2.5 years | 3.5 years | 4.5 years | 5.5 years | 6.5 years or longer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual paid leave days granted | 10 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 |
Effective from April 2019, employers required to have employees, who are granted annual paid leave of 10 or more working days, take at least 5 annual paid leave a year.
(2) Other types of paid leave
In Japan, it is common for employers to grant additional paid leave as employee benefits for occasions such as employee’s marriage or death of their family members.
Employers are not required to grant paid leave for an employee’s leave of absence due to illness or injury outside work.
2. Rules of Employment
An employer which continuously employs 10 or more employees is required to draw up and submit Rules of Employment to the local Labor Standards Inspection Office. Also, the employer must ask the employees’ opinion about the rules and attach it in writing when submitting the rules. The same procedure is required when any change is made to the rules. Employers must notify the rules to all employees.
Submission of the Rules of Employment is not mandatory for business entities with fewer than 10 employees. However, it is recommended for all business entities to prepare the rules in order to avoid unnecessary disputes between labor and management.
3. Labor-management Agreement
Labor-management agreement is a written agreement signed between a person representing a majority of the workers and the management. A typical example is “Agreement on overtime work and work on holidays.” Employers should be aware that they cannot have employees work exceeding statutory working hours or on statutory holidays unless this agreement is signed and submitted to the local Labor Standards Inspection Office.
4. Annual Health Check-up
Employers have an obligation to provide employees with health check-up once every year. Employers are also required to provide health check-up to new employees when they are hired.