How do you set up the labour for an animal hospital or grooming salon? Companion Animal Nurses, night duty shifts, and part-timer social insurance

In short: The first labour items for opening an animal hospital or grooming salon are three - (1) employment contracts and notice of working conditions, (2) work rules if you regularly use 10 or more people, and (3) a 36 Agreement if you have workers do overtime or holiday work. If you want to treat an overnight "stay" as night duty (yasukin) or day duty, the work must actually be intermittent, and you must obtain the labour standards inspection office director's permission in advance (Labor Standards Act Enforcement Ordinance Article 23, Form No. 10). If you have staff do ordinary night work — treatment and nursing — without permission, it is overtime subject to premium pay. From a Shakai Hoken Roumushi's view, this article sets out shifts for veterinarians, Companion Animal Nurses and groomers, night/day duty, and part-timer social insurance, and separates the animal-handling business registration to a Gyoseishoshi, the property to a Real Estate Transaction Specialist, and tax to a tax accountant.

"Can we organise night duty as yasukin at an animal hospital with night coverage?" and "From where do part-timers at a grooming-only salon enter social insurance?" — these are questions we often hear when opening animal-medical and pet-related businesses. This page focuses on the labour design of working hours/shifts and social insurance. The animal-handling business registration, facility permits, the property contract and tax are each the domain of a different professional, and we separate them in the latter half.

What labour documents do you set up first for an animal hospital or grooming salon?

The labour documents needed the moment you hire are common regardless of scale. Preparing them before opening prevents rework later.

Document	Basis	When needed
Notice of working conditions (employment contract / notice)	Labor Standards Act Article 15, Enforcement Ordinance Article 5	When you hire even one worker. From April 2024, also state the scope of change of place of work and of the work
Creation/filing of work rules	Labor Standards Act Articles 89 and 90	When you regularly use 10 or more. File with the labour standards inspection office director after hearing the majority representative
Agreement on overtime and holiday work (36 Agreement)	Labor Standards Act Article 36	When you have workers exceed statutory hours (8 hours a day, 40 a week) or work on a statutory holiday
Worker roster, wage ledger, attendance record	Labor Standards Act Articles 107, 108, 109	When you hire. There is a duty to retain them

Animal hospitals and grooming are industries where treatment/reception hours easily diverge from staff working hours. Pre-opening preparation, cleaning of instruments, entering records, and post-closing cleanup are in principle working hours. Making the concept of start/finish times clear in the work rules avoids disputes over overtime. For the duty to create work rules, see why do work rules become mandatory at 10 or more people, and what do you write; for the scope of the 36 Agreement, see how much overtime can a 36 Agreement cover. The thinking on distinguishing reception hours from working hours in industries like judo-therapy clinics is also helpful in how do you distinguish reception hours from working hours at a judo-therapy clinic.

How do you distinguish night/day duty from overtime?

At an animal hospital that places an overnight "stay" to watch inpatient animals, the dividing line is whether that duty can be treated as night duty (nights) or day duty (holiday daytime). If it can be treated as night/day duty, that time is outside the working-hour rules (Labor Standards Act Article 32), but it can be so treated only for intermittent work, and only where permission has been obtained in advance.

Category	Treatment	Premise
Night/day duty (with permission)	Outside the Article 32 working-hour rules. Pay a night/day-duty allowance	Under Enforcement Ordinance Article 23, permission of the labour standards inspection office director via Form No. 10. The work is actually intermittent
Night work without permission	Ordinary working hours. Overtime and late-night (22:00–05:00) are subject to premium pay	Where no permission is obtained, or the reality has become ordinary treatment/nursing

Work permitted as night/day duty is limited to duty that in principle requires almost no work — regular patrols, handling urgent documents/phone calls, standby for emergencies — and is not permitted where treatment/handling like ordinary duty continues (general permission criteria; accessed 28 September 2026). Even with permission, hours actually worked (emergency patients, etc.) require separate payment of wages including premiums. For the thinking on night/day-duty permission in medicine and care, see on what criteria is night/day duty in medicine and care permitted; for the night-duty and social-insurance design of a human medical clinic, see how do you set up night/day duty and nurses' social insurance when opening a clinic. The final judgment of whether it counts as night/day duty is a question of the inspection office director's permission, so you record the reality and then apply/confirm.

What did the national qualification of the Companion Animal Nurse change in labour?

On 1 May 2022, the Companion Animal Nursing Care Act (Act No. 50 of 2019; promulgated 28 June 2019, effective date set by Cabinet Order No. 309 of 2020) took effect, and the Companion Animal Nurse became a national qualification. In labour, you organise how to reflect the presence/absence of the qualification in duties and treatment.

• Job design: Under a veterinarian's instruction, a Companion Animal Nurse can perform certain assistance in treatment (drawing blood, administering medicine, and other acts prescribed by law). Because the scope differs from unqualified animal-nursing staff, make the role division clear in the work rules and wage regulations
• Qualification allowance/grade: If you set a qualification allowance or grade on the occasion of the national qualification, state the criteria in the wage regulations. Whether to have an allowance and its amount is a management decision, but from an equal-pay-for-equal-work view, be able to explain the reason for any treatment gap between qualified and unqualified staff
• Recruitment/hiring: On the job notice, state working conditions by role — Companion Animal Nurse, groomer, reception

The name and scope of the qualification itself are matters of the veterinary/animal-nursing system, and the final judgment of whether an individual act falls within the qualification's work rests on the interpretation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Ministry of the Environment, and on a veterinarian's judgment. On the labour side, we handle arranging the wage regulations and work rules' role division on the premise of that division. The thinking on treatment gaps for part-timers/qualified staff is a close issue in how do you treat dental technicians and part-timers' social insurance at a dental clinic.

From where do part-timers enter social insurance?

If you run grooming/reception with part-timers, enrolment in social insurance (health insurance, employees' pension) is judged by prescribed working hours.

Have a question about your situation?

Tell us about your social insurance, payroll or employment enquiry.

Chat on LINEContact us

Category	Guide to enrolment
3/4 or more of a regular worker	Insured if weekly prescribed hours and monthly prescribed days are roughly 3/4 or more of a regular worker's
Short-time worker (at a specified applicable establishment)	Even below 3/4, insured if all are met: 20+ weekly prescribed hours, monthly prescribed wage of 88,000 yen or more, employment prospect over 2 months, and not a student
Scope of specified applicable establishment	Firms with 101+ insured under employees' pension from October 2022, and 51+ from October 2024 (accessed 28 September 2026)

• Employment insurance: Insured with 20+ prescribed weekly hours and an employment prospect of 31 days or more (expanding to 10+ weekly hours from October 2028)
• Workers' accident insurance: Applies once even one worker is hired

The judgment for short-time workers is detailed in how do part-timers enter social insurance from the 3/4 standard. Because whether you are a specified applicable establishment changes with the number of insured and with sole-proprietor/corporate status, confirm the need to enrol per establishment.

Whom do you consult about the animal-handling registration, the property, and tax?

Opening an animal hospital or grooming salon involves several procedures and contracts beyond labour. Separating the roles and entrusting each to its professional is safer.

What is done	Whose domain
Employment contracts, work rules, wage regulations, notice of working conditions, filing the 36 Agreement and night/day-duty permission, social/labour-insurance enrolment	Shakai Hoken Roumushi (四葉社会保険労務士事務所)
Registration of a Class I animal-handling business (boarding, sale, etc.) and appointment of the animal-handling manager	Gyoseishoshi (四葉行政書士事務所)
Selecting the shop/clinic property and negotiating the lease terms	Real Estate Transaction Specialist (real estate company)
Income tax on wages, year-end adjustment, opening tax	Tax accountant
Labour disputes such as unpaid wages and dismissal	Attorney

When you run a business handling animals — a grooming salon, pet hotel, etc. — under Article 10 of the Act on Welfare and Management of Animals, you need registration of a Class I animal-handling business with the prefectural governor (or the head of a designated city) that has jurisdiction over the establishment's location, and you must appoint an animal-handling manager per establishment. Filing this registration is a Gyoseishoshi's work. 四葉社会保険労務士事務所 and 四葉行政書士事務所 are independent business entities. Labour goes to the Shakai Hoken Roumushi and the animal-handling registration to the Gyoseishoshi, so you contract with each separately — a separate-engagement arrangement. No referral fees are exchanged. Consultation is free. For fees, see the fee schedule; for FAQs, see the FAQ.

FAQ

Q. Can we organise night duty as yasukin at an animal hospital with night coverage?
A. If the work is actually intermittent and you have obtained the labour standards inspection office director's permission via Form No. 10 under Enforcement Ordinance Article 23, you can treat it as night/day duty. Where ordinary treatment/handling continues, it is not permitted, and it becomes overtime and late-night work subject to premium pay. Since whether it counts is a question of permission, record the reality and apply/confirm.

Q. Must we pay a qualification allowance to a Companion Animal Nurse?
A. Whether to pay a qualification allowance and the amount is a management decision, not a legal duty. But if you set an allowance or grade, state the criteria in the wage regulations and be able to explain the reason for any treatment gap between qualified and unqualified staff. Whether an individual act falls within the qualification's work is a matter of the veterinary system; on the labour side we handle reflecting the role division in the wage regulations and work rules.

Q. Do we need work rules even for a salon with just one groomer?
A. The duty to create/file work rules applies to a workplace regularly using 10 or more (Labor Standards Act Article 89). Under 10 it is not mandatory, but preparing them voluntarily — to make start/finish, breaks and wages clear — prevents trouble. Even under 10, notice of working conditions (Article 15) is needed.

Q. Can we ask a Shakai Hoken Roumushi to do the animal-handling registration too?
A. Filing the animal-handling registration is a Gyoseishoshi's work; a Shakai Hoken Roumushi cannot handle it. At Yotsuba, 四葉社会保険労務士事務所 (labour) and 四葉行政書士事務所 (registration) are independent business entities, dividing the work under separate contracts. The property goes to a Real Estate Transaction Specialist (real estate company) and tax to a tax accountant.

Sources

• Labor Standards Act (Act No. 49 of 1947), Article 15 (notice of working conditions), Enforcement Ordinance Article 5 (items to state, including the scope of change of place of work and of work added from April 2024), Article 32 (working hours), Article 36 (agreement on overtime/holiday work), Article 37 (premium pay, late-night premium), Articles 89 and 90 (creation, hearing of opinion and filing of work rules), Articles 107–109 (worker roster, wage ledger, retention of records)
• Labor Standards Act Enforcement Ordinance (Ordinance No. 23 of 1947), Article 23 (night or day duty; where permission of the labour standards inspection office director is obtained via Form No. 10, workers may be used notwithstanding Article 32). The general permission criteria (limited to duty requiring in principle almost no work, etc.) were confirmed in MHLW/labour bureau guidance (accessed 28 September 2026)
• Companion Animal Nursing Care Act (Act No. 50 of 2019; promulgated 28 June 2019, effective 1 May 2022 by the Cabinet Order setting the effective date of the Companion Animal Nursing Care Act [Cabinet Order No. 309 of 2020]). The Companion Animal Nurse is a national qualification
• Act on Welfare and Management of Animals (Act No. 105 of 1973), Article 10 (registration of a Class I animal-handling business with the prefectural governor, etc., and appointment of the animal-handling manager)
• Health Insurance Act (Act No. 70 of 1922) and Employees' Pension Insurance Act (Act No. 115 of 1954) (the 3/4 standard for regular workers, and the coverage expansion for short-time workers — 20+ weekly hours, monthly wage of 88,000 yen or more, prospect over 2 months, not a student; specified applicable establishments are 101+ from October 2022 and 51+ from October 2024; accessed 28 September 2026), Employment Insurance Act (Act No. 116 of 1974) (20+ weekly hours and 31 days; expanding to 10+ weekly hours from October 2028), Workers' Accident Compensation Insurance Act (Act No. 50 of 1947)
• Individual judgments on night/day-duty applicability, the individual scope of a Companion Animal Nurse's work, and whether you are a specified applicable establishment can change with reality, establishment size and reform, so this article avoids asserting them and treats them as points to confirm with the labour standards inspection office, the pension office, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, etc. (unverified)

This article does not decide whom to consult. Employment contracts, work rules and wage regulations, notice of working conditions, filing the 36 Agreement and night/day-duty permission, and social/labour-insurance enrolment are the work of a Shakai Hoken Roumushi. Class I animal-handling registration is for a Gyoseishoshi, the property for a Real Estate Transaction Specialist (real estate company), tax on wages for a tax accountant, and labour disputes for an attorney. 四葉社会保険労務士事務所 and 四葉行政書士事務所 are independent business entities, contracted separately.

This article is general information. A judgment on individual circumstances is made by a qualified professional after a consultation. Written by Joji Uramatsu (Shakai Hoken Roumushi, Gyoseishoshi, Registered Real Estate Transaction Specialist).