Japanese employment law is unusually protective of employees, and the gap between what a foreign HQ expects and what Japanese law actually permits is where much of the risk sits for a foreign-owned operation. We advise the employer — on terminations, restructurings, investigations, and the regulatory visits that follow them.
Structuring a defensible separation under Japanese law, which rarely permits unilateral termination on performance grounds alone. We design the process, draft the settlement or mutual termination agreement, and negotiate directly with the employee or their counsel where needed.
Japan's four-factor test for economic dismissals sets a high bar. We design redundancy programs — selection criteria, severance calculation, consultation process — built to withstand scrutiny, and coordinate the message back to headquarters.
An unannounced or scheduled visit from the Labor Standards Inspection Office requires a coordinated, document-ready response. We attend, respond to findings, and close out corrective recommendations.
Independent, documented investigations into harassment or misconduct complaints, structured to meet the employer's statutory prevention-measure obligations and to hold up if the matter later escalates.
Advice on fixed-term, part-time, and dispatched (haken) staff, including the Article 18 conversion rule for employees approaching five years of continuous fixed-term employment — a frequent blind spot for foreign HR teams.
Drafting and updating work rules (shūgyō kisoku) and HR policies so they are enforceable under Japanese law while preserving as much of your global HR framework as the law permits.
Client identities are withheld. These describe the shape of engagements we handle routinely, not any single matter.
Multi-year management-side employment defense for a multinational SaaS provider, including Labor Standards Inspection follow-up.
Japan restructuring and severance design for a foreign-owned advertising and communications agency, coordinated closely with APAC headquarters and local HR.
Redundancy program design and consultation-process management for a foreign industrial equipment manufacturer scaling down a Japan business unit.
Ongoing outside-GC retainer for a European logistics and software group, absorbing settlement negotiation and termination work as it arose within the standing engagement.
Harassment investigation and remediation plan for a foreign consumer brand's Japan sales team, run independently of the reporting line under complaint.
Termination and settlement strategy for a foreign game publisher's Japan studio during a headquarters-directed portfolio review.
Foreign HQ legal and HR teams are usually the actual audience for our work, even when the matter plays out entirely in Japan. We write and speak in plain English, flag risk levels headquarters will recognize, and are direct about what Japanese law does and does not allow — including when the answer is less flexible than headquarters hoped.
Almost never without a structured process. Japanese courts apply a strict standard to unilateral dismissal, and a termination that would be routine in an at-will jurisdiction can expose the company to a wrongful dismissal claim and reinstatement risk in Japan. In most cases we recommend a negotiated separation, and we can tell you early whether your specific facts support it.
Contact us before the visit if you have notice, or immediately after if it was unannounced. We can attend, help assemble the requested documentation, and manage the response to any corrective recommendation that follows.
No. Our employment practice is exclusively management-side. This is a deliberate choice, not a limitation of scope — it means there is no conflict of loyalty in how we advise you.
Contact us through the form or by email and mark the matter as time-sensitive. Triage and a scoping online meeting follow; for retainer clients, time-critical matters fall within priority handling under the engagement letter. See Employment Crisis Response for details.
Tell us what's happening and we'll tell you, plainly, what your options are.
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