Short articles on Japanese employment, corporate, and commercial law developments that matter to foreign-headquartered companies. Choose a topic to see related articles.
On November 1, 2024, new legislation protecting freelancers from exploitation, the Act on Ensuring Proper Transactions Involving Specified Entrusted Business Operators (Act No. 25 of 2023), was coming into force. The…
Effective from April 1, 2024, companies that have adopted discretionary working systems are required to amend their labor-management agreements and secure employees’ consent to apply these systems. Under the new…
On March 28, 2023, the Cabinet Office promulgated a new regulation prohibiting businesses from representing their products and services in ways that make it difficult for consumers to recognize their sponsored nature.…
On April 12, 2022, a study group organized by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare (“MHLW”) published a report examining options for statutory severance in employment termination. The recommendation took nearly…
On July 19, 2021, the Supreme Court rendered a decision on the duties and responsibilities of a statutory auditor in a case where a company sued its statutory auditor for a $2 million embezzlement by its employee. This…
A non-compete agreement in an employment context usually refers to an agreement that prohibits an employee from working for another company doing similar (therefore competing) business during or for a specified time…
If you are not happy with the performance of your Japanese subsidiary or just acquired a Japanese company, you may come across an occasion to replace your directors in the company. As long as you have the majority…
On June 19, 2020, the Japanese government published a Q&A memorandum stating that placing a seal is not absolutely necessary to enter into a contract. This was made in response to the requests by Keidanren and other…
In response to the recent COVID-19 outbreak and the economic downturn triggered by it, many companies are dealing with adjustments in their workforces. For those who need to consider their options in their Japan…
On December 4, 2019, a bill to amend the Companies Act passed the Diet and was enacted. The amendment will be effective in 18 months from December 11, 2019, the date of promulgation. This amendment includes a wide…
While the amendment of the Civil Code will be effective on April 1, 2020, one of the major changes in the amendment is statutory warranties, often called latent or hidden defect protections. In particular, you may often…
The Japanese congress passed a “workstyle reform act” that amends a set of existing employment laws in July 2018. Primarily, this is to limit long working hours for employees and introduce more flexibility in their…
On July 7, 2017, Japan’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of a doctor seeking for payment of overtime wages in addition to his annual salary of ¥17 million. Japan’s employment law provides that employees working beyond 8…
On February 21, 2017, the Third Petty Bench of the Supreme Court rendered a decision that a closed company with a board of directors may appoint a representative director by a resolution of the shareholders’ meeting, as…
On May 29, 2017, the Diet passed a proposed bill to amend the Civil Code, which was promulgated on June 2, 2017. The new amendment will be effective within three years from the date of the promulgation. It has taken…
On June 9, 2017, after passing the Upper House, the Vacation Rental Business Act was enacted. This puts an end to a longstanding question about whether a vacation rental business (called Minpaku in Japanese) is legal in…
It's been over a decade since Japan introduced labor tribunal proceedings in 2006. For those who are not familiar with them, labor tribunal proceedings are legal proceedings to resolve individual (i.e., not collective)…
In November 2016, Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission published guidelines on the implementation of the new amendment to the main body of Japan’s privacy law, the Act on the Protection of Personal…
When starting a business, people often wonder whether they should set up a corporation and, if so, which type of corporation to choose. Given the number of new entries into the Japanese market, it seems likely that many…
On January 31, 2017, Japan’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal to reverse the dismissal of the case filed by a man, once fined for child prostitution, who was seeking injunctive relief to delete search results referring…
Reflecting recent economic trends, over the last several months we have received several inquiries on how to implement reduction in force in Japanese workplaces. Below are frequently asked questions we have received…
Articles reflect the law as of their publication date and have not been updated since.