What is Japanese labour law ?

Labor distribution follows the pattern set by other industrialized nations. While agriculture and other primary-sector industries employ fewer people, services and other tertiary industries show an increase.

The probation time is not legally limited. Its renewal is also not prohibited by law.

Employment in primary industry fell from 32.7 percent of the working population in 1960 to 4.2 percent in 2008. Over the same period, tertiary occupations rose from 38.2 percent of the total to 68.5 percent. A vast majority of Japan's working population is made up of salaried workers

A protection against dismissal is nevertheless assured. After the first 14 days of the probation time, the employer is legally forced to consider the normal notice period of 30 days when giving notice (Art. 21 of the LSL). According to court rulings, the employer's freedom to dismiss is also only merely extended during the probation time.

In 2002, 84.2 percent of the total population worked at salaried jobs.

Labor force: 25 percent industry; 5 percent agriculture; and 70 percent services. About 93 percent of men between 25 and 54 have a job in Japan.

Temporary work (dispatched work) is governed by the Worker Dispatching Law (WDL) adopted 5 July 1985 and last amended 30 June 1999.

Nonregular workers accounted for 38.7 percent of Japan's total workforce and part-time workers made up 22.9 percent of all workers as of October 2010. Regular workers accounted for 61.3 percent of Japan's total workforce Small and mid-size companies employ 65 percent of the workforce in Japan.

In this employment situation, the worker has an employment contract with a worker dispatching agency but works under the direction of a client company which has concluded a dispatching contract with the dispatching agency.

The Labor Standards Law of 1947 contains a “bill of rights” for workers that guarantees minimum wage, maximum hours of work and so on. The rules about long hours are often overlooked.

The agency may hire the dispatch worker on a permanent basis.

According to a survey among 1,000 elementary students in 2003, the dream job for boys was to be a professor or a soccer player, for girls it was to run a restaurant or be a nurse.

The agency may hire the dispatch worker on a permanent basis.

The rich and highly regarded Japanese investor Nobuyuki Koga told the Times of London that Japanese “employees are ambitious, and we are fortunate to have people that naturally work extremely hard.

Hard work doesn't bear as much fruit as it once did. Sometimes it seems like the economy would be better served if Japanese spent more time enjoying themselves and spending money and generating domestic demand rather than working.

This latter type of business requires permission from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Japanese are well educated. One scholar told U.S. News and World report that "when you sit down with Japanese blue-collar workers in a quality-control circle, you hear discussions at levels you'd expect from Americans who have gone through four years of engineering school."

Training is often done through apprenticeship-like systems. In some trades trainees are expected to “learn and steal” the trade from their masters.

Dispatched work is prohibited mainly in port transport, construction and guard services . In all other cases, the worker can be dispatched but in principle only up to one year.

Hazing of new employees is not unusual. In December 2009, four trainee firefighters received ¥6.6 million in compensation for a hazing incident that caused them to resign.

The retirement age in 1995 was 66.5 compared to 67.2 in 1960. About 350,000 people retired a year in the 1990s.

Exceeding the one year limitation the client company will be recommended but not forced by the government to hire the temporary worker as its own employee.

There was a sudden surge of retirees in 2007 to 500,000 a year as some of the seven million Japanese baby boomers, defined as those born between 1947 and 1949, began retiring.

The one year limitation does not apply to the following three cases

Japanese are required to retire when they are 65. Surveys indicate that many Japanese believe that raising the retirement age is the best way for the government to finance services of its aging population.