How do you introduce paid leave taken in hourly units? The labour-management agreement, the work rules, and the link to the five-days obligation

In short: Hourly-unit annual paid leave is a system that, once a labour-management agreement is concluded, lets workers take leave in units of hours, up to five days' worth a year (Labor Standards Act, Article 39, paragraph 4). The agreement must set the "scope of covered workers," the "number of days (up to five)," the "hours that make up one day," and so on (that paragraph and Enforcement Regulations of the Labor Standards Act, Article 24-4); leave in units of minutes, or a setting that exceeds the daily scheduled hours, is not allowed. What to watch is that leave taken in hourly units cannot be counted toward the annual five-days obligation (Article 39, paragraph 7). This article sets out the difference from half-day leave, what the agreement must contain, the link to the five-days obligation, how to write it into the work rules, and the pitfalls at introduction.

"I don't need a whole day off, but I'd like to step out for a few hours for a hospital visit or a child's school event" — hourly-unit paid leave answers such needs. This page is for the general-affairs staff and owners of small and medium-sized companies, and sets out the outline of the system, the steps to introduce it, and the points that are easy to trip over in operation. The final judgment on designing a particular scheme is outside the scope of this article.

What is hourly-unit paid leave, and how does it differ from half-day leave?

Hourly-unit paid leave is a system that lets workers take annual paid leave in units of hours, such as one hour at a time. On the worker's request, it may be given up to five days' worth a year (Labor Standards Act, Article 39, paragraph 4). It fits situations that are hard to use in whole-day units, such as hospital visits, dealings with government offices, or family matters.

It is often confused with "half-day leave." The two differ in both their basis and their procedure.

	Hourly-unit leave	Half-day leave
Legal basis	Labor Standards Act, Article 39, paragraph 4 (an express system)	No express provision in law (allowed by administrative interpretation and practice)
Labour-management agreement	Required	Not required (can be introduced through the work rules)
Cap	Up to five days' worth a year	No express cap
Unit taken	One hour at a time, etc. (units of minutes not allowed)	Half a day (morning / afternoon, etc.)
Counting toward the five-days obligation	Cannot	Can be counted as 0.5 day

In short, hourly-unit leave is "usable in small amounts, but comes with an agreement and a five-day cap," while half-day leave is "easy to introduce without an agreement, but the unit stops at half a day."

What must the labour-management agreement set?

To introduce hourly-unit leave, a written labour-management agreement is needed with the labour union representing a majority at the workplace (or, if there is none, a person representing a majority of the workers) (Labor Standards Act, Article 39, paragraph 4). The items to set in the agreement are split between the Act and the Enforcement Regulations.

Item to set	Basis	Content
Scope of covered workers	Act, Article 39, paragraph 4, item 1	To whom hourly-unit leave is allowed
Number of days given in hourly units	Act, Article 39, paragraph 4, item 2	Limited to five days or fewer
Hours making up one day	Enforcement Regulations, Article 24-4, item 1	Set on the basis of the daily scheduled hours (a fraction of less than an hour is rounded up to one hour)
Hours when a unit other than one hour is used	Enforcement Regulations, Article 24-4, item 2	The setting when using, say, two-hour units (must not exceed the daily scheduled hours)

The labour-management agreement does not need to be filed with the Labour Standards Inspection Office with jurisdiction, but a separate provision on hourly-unit leave must be placed in the work rules (see below). Granting leave in units of minutes (such as 30-minute units) is not allowed. The minimum unit is one hour, and anything above that is set in whole hours.

Can hourly-unit leave be counted toward the five-days obligation?

This is the point most easily tripped over. For workers granted 10 or more days of annual paid leave, the employer is obliged to have them take five days a year by designating the timing (Labor Standards Act, Article 39, paragraph 7; in force since April 2019). Toward these five days, leave taken in hourly units cannot be counted. Half-day leave counts as 0.5 day, but hourly-unit leave — even if several days' worth has been used up in hourly units — is treated as not entering the calculation of the five-days obligation.

So even a worker who makes generous use of hourly-unit leave must separately be made to take "five days a year in whole-day (or half-day) units." When you introduce the system, manage the take-up on the assumption of this two-track structure. The details of the five-days obligation are set out in our separate article, The five-days obligation and the two-year prescription.

How should it be written into the work rules?

As a matter concerning working conditions, hourly-unit leave must be stated in the work rules. After setting the framework (covered workers, number of days, hours making up one day, etc.) in the labour-management agreement, at least the following are put into the work rules.

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• That hourly-unit leave is granted, and to whom
• The cap on the number of days that can be taken (that it is within five days' worth a year)
• The hours making up one day, and the unit of taking (one hour at a time, etc.)
• The request procedure (by when and how to apply)

Drawing up and amending the work rules (a workplace that regularly employs 10 or more has a filing obligation) and concluding the labour-management agreement are the work of a Shakai Hoken Roumushi. It is safer to also check the consistency with existing annual-paid-leave rules (such as the relationship where half-day leave is used together).

What are the common troubles at introduction?

Even though the system is simple, operation tends to trip over the following.

Trip-up	The point
Trying to fold it into planned grant	Hourly-unit leave cannot be made the subject of planned grant (planned annual leave). Planned leave presupposes whole-day units
Counting it toward the five-days obligation	As above, hourly-unit leave cannot be counted toward the annual five-days obligation
Operating in units of minutes	The minimum unit is one hour. 30-minute units and the like are not allowed
Changing the unit via the right to change the timing	The employer has a right to change the timing, but it is understood that the unit itself — from the "hourly unit" the worker requested to a "whole-day unit" — cannot be changed
Management of remaining hours becomes complex	Because "days" and "hours" are mixed, a management ledger of remaining days and hours, and an attendance system, need to be put in place

To make the most of the purpose of introduction (flexible ease of taking leave), it is important to prepare not only the system but also, as a set, a structure that manages remaining hours correctly.

What can 四葉社会保険労務士事務所 do for you?

四葉社会保険労務士事務所 in Kohinata, Bunkyo Ward, handles drawing up the labour-management agreement for hourly-unit leave, reflecting it in the work rules and annual-paid-leave rules, checking consistency with existing half-day leave, and building the structure for managing remaining days and hours. The initial consultation is free. Fees are set out in the fee schedule.

Please note that where a dispute has arisen over non-take-up or obstruction of take-up, we will guide you to engage an attorney directly. This office does not accept referral fees.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Is it mandatory to introduce hourly-unit leave?
A. No. Introducing hourly-unit leave is not an obligation. It is a system under which, if you do introduce it, a labour-management agreement and a provision in the work rules become necessary. Decide whether to introduce it after considering whether it suits how your company works.

Q. If the daily scheduled hours are 7 hours 30 minutes, how many hours make up one day?
A. A fraction of less than an hour is rounded up to one hour (Enforcement Regulations of the Labor Standards Act, Article 24-4, item 1). So for 7 hours 30 minutes, "one day" of hourly-unit leave is treated as 8 hours. You set this number of hours in the labour-management agreement.

Q. Can hourly-unit leave be used toward the five-days obligation?
A. No. What can be counted toward the five-days obligation (Labor Standards Act, Article 39, paragraph 7) is leave taken in whole-day or half-day units; leave taken in hourly units is treated as not counting. You need to have five days secured separately from hourly-unit leave.

Q. Can part-time workers be made subject to hourly-unit leave?
A. The scope of covered workers is set in the labour-management agreement. Any worker to whom annual paid leave is granted can be included, regardless of employment type. Even where the granted days are few, you set it within that range, up to five days' worth a year.

Sources for this article

• Labor Standards Act (労働基準法, Act No. 49 of 1947), Article 39, paragraph 4 (hourly-unit leave: that, by a labour-management agreement, leave may be given in units of hours up to five days a year, and the agreement items in items 1 and 2), and Article 39, paragraph 7 (the obligation to have five days taken by designating the timing)
• Enforcement Regulations of the Labor Standards Act (労働基準法施行規則, Ordinance of the Ministry of Health and Welfare No. 23 of 1947), Article 24-4 (the matters prescribed by ordinance under Article 39, paragraph 4, item 3 — the hours making up one day, and the hours when a unit other than one hour is used)
• The hourly-unit leave system came into force on April 1, 2010, under the amended Labor Standards Act (Act No. 89 of 2008); the obligation to have five days taken came into force on April 1, 2019
• That hourly-unit leave cannot be counted toward the five-days obligation, cannot be made the subject of planned grant, and that half-day leave can be counted as 0.5 day, are confirmed from materials published by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and prefectural labour bureaus (the "Work Style / Rest Style Improvement Portal" hourly annual paid leave system, and the leaflet on the obligation to designate the timing of annual paid leave; referenced September 2026)
• The article numbers, the units, and the cap on days have been checked against e-Gov Law Search and materials published by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

This article is general information. Judgments that fit your particular circumstances are made by a qualified professional after a meeting. Written by Joji Uramatsu (Shakai Hoken Roumushi (Certified Social Insurance and Labor Consultant), Gyoseishoshi (Certified Administrative Procedures Legal Specialist), Registered Real Estate Transaction Specialist).