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Useful information on social insurance, subsidies, and labor management.
Delivered in an easy-to-understand manner from the perspective of a labor consultant.
When an employee is off sick — how much sickness allowance is paid, and for how long
When an employee cannot work because of a non-work illness or injury and no wages are paid, health insurance pays sickness allowance (Health Insurance Act, Article 99). It starts on the fourth day after a waiting period of three consecutive days, and the daily amount is, in principle, the average of the standard monthly remuneration over the 12 months before the start date ÷ 30 × two-thirds. Since the amendment effective January 1, 2022 (Reiwa 4), the payment period is a total of one year and six months from the day payment begins (Article 99, paragraph 4). Where the cause is a work or commuting accident, the benefit comes from workers' accident insurance, not health insurance. This page sets out the requirements, the waiting period and amount, the totalled payment period, adjustment with paid leave/retirement/workers' accident insurance/disability pension, and what the employer must certify and do.
How to count "full-time equivalents" (jokin kansan) in disability welfare and long-term care — building shifts that meet the staffing standard
The full-time-equivalent (jokin kansan) method divides the total working hours of an office's staff by the hours a full-time worker at that office is supposed to work, giving the number of full-time equivalents. The divisor is the hours the office itself sets (in its work rules, etc.); where that is below 32 hours a week, 32 hours is used as the base. Fractions are generally rounded down below the second decimal place. This page sets out the difference from "full-time," how to choose the divisor, how to count concurrent duties, part-timers and those on childcare leave, what to fix when you are about to fall short, and how labour (a shakai hoken roumushi) and the designation application (a gyoseishoshi) divide up.
The first labour tasks when opening a clinic — social insurance for nurses and reception staff, and the on-call permit for doctors
When you open a clinic, the first labour tasks are enrolling staff in social insurance (health insurance and employees' pension), setting out working conditions and employment contracts, and — if you use 10 or more people — drawing up and filing work rules. If doctors or staff do night or holiday on-call duty, you also obtain an on-call permit from the Labor Standards Inspection Office. A medical corporation (a juridical person) is subject to compulsory social insurance if it employs anyone; a sole-proprietor clinic is compulsory once it regularly uses 5 or more people. This page sets out what to do first, how to judge social-insurance coverage, the on-call permit, when work rules and the 36 Agreement are needed, and whom to ask for what.
What a company must do when an employee dies — unpaid wages, loss of insured status, and survivors' benefits
When an employee dies, the company must complete the loss-of-status procedures for social insurance and employment insurance within the deadlines, pay any unpaid wages and retirement allowance to the heirs, and help with the benefits the bereaved can receive (workers'-accident survivors' benefits, survivors' pensions, and so on). The date of loss of health-insurance and pension status is the day after death; the notice is due within 5 days, and the employment-insurance loss notice within 10 days. Unpaid wages pass by inheritance and, on the heirs' request, must be paid within 7 days (Labor Standards Act, Article 23). This page sets out what to do and when, whom to pay, the loss-of-status procedures, survivors' benefits, and what to put in place internally.
The "2024 problem" in trucking and the Improvement Standards Notice — the ceiling on drivers' on-duty hours
The trucking industry's "2024 problem" refers to the fact that, from April 1, 2024, the cap on overtime work began to apply to motor-vehicle driving, and at the same time the amended Improvement Standards Notice (standards on on-duty hours and rest periods) took effect. Truck drivers must be managed within a line of up to 960 hours of overtime a year even under a special clause (Labor Standards Act, Supplementary Provisions, Article 140), on-duty hours of 3,300 a year / 284 a month / 13 (up to 15) a day, and a rest period based on a continuous 11 hours and never below 9. This page sets out what changed, the on-duty ceilings, where to fix the 36 Agreement, and whom to ask for what.
Is fixed overtime pay lawful? The disclosure and difference-settlement requirements
Fixed (flat-rate) overtime pay is lawful if the requirements are met — but it does not mean "pay it and no more is owed however many hours are worked." To be valid, the ordinary wage and the premium portion must be distinguishable (clear separation) and the fixed portion must be consideration for overtime, and any overtime beyond the fixed portion must always be settled as a difference. If it is held invalid, the fixed portion is folded back into the base wage and unpaid overtime balloons on recalculation. Whether a given allowance qualifies is judged by a qualified professional.
A resignation-agency has contacted us: the company's practical response and separation procedures
Even if a resignation agency contacts you, you may accept the notice of resignation itself. An indefinite-term employment ends two weeks after the worker gives notice of termination (Civil Code Article 627(1)). But if the agency goes as far as "negotiating resignation terms," it may fall foul of Attorney Act Article 72, so check the agency's type (private, labour union, attorney). Pay wages directly to the worker (Labour Standards Act Article 24), return money and goods within seven days of a demand (Article 23), and note the deadlines for loss-of-status and separation-slip procedures. Individual responses are handled by a qualified professional.
If a foreign worker is injured at work and returns home, what happens to the compensation?
Workers' accident compensation insurance applies to any worker employed at a business in Japan, regardless of nationality or residence status. Medical, leave, and disability benefits for a work-caused injury or illness can be received even after the worker has returned home, and can be remitted to an overseas account. But claims have time limits — two years for medical and leave benefits, five years for disability and survivors' benefits. Whether it counts as a work accident is decided by the Labour Standards Inspection Office.
How should a home-visit nursing station design its on-call (standby) allowance?
Whether on-call (standby) time counts as working time turns on whether the worker is under the employer's direction during standby and the free use of that time is not guaranteed. Time actually spent working after a call-out is working time, and overtime, late-night, or holiday work requires premium wages (Labour Standards Act, Article 37). Paying a standby allowance does not by itself remove the duty to pay premium wages. Whether a specific standby period counts as working time is ultimately decided by the Labour Standards Inspection Office or the courts.
The professional-type discretionary work system — how individual consent and reporting changed in the April 2024 amendment
From April 2024, introducing or renewing the professional-type discretionary work system requires the labour-management agreement to state that the consent of each covered worker will be obtained and that a worker who does not consent will not be treated disadvantageously. Companies already running the system must redraft their agreement. The system deems the worker to have worked the hours set in the agreement, and only 20 prescribed types of work qualify. This article sets out the framework and what the 2024 amendment adds — consent, the withdrawal procedure, record-keeping — and how the filing (Form 13) differs from the periodic report required of the planning-type system.
The expansion of Specified Skilled Worker (ii) — how family accompaniment and social insurance change the labour side
Specified Skilled Worker (ii) differs sharply from (i): there is no cap on renewals of the period of stay, and family can be brought over where the requirements are met. If family live in Japan they may become dependants for social insurance, and the longer the worker stays the more the employees' pension builds up. The labour design has to shift from a "leaves in five years" premise to a long-settlement premise. A 9 June 2023 Cabinet decision widened (ii) from two fields to every specified industry field except nursing care. The residence application itself is the domain of the administrative scrivener, not this office.
The "1.06 million yen wall" is abolished in October 2026. What a business owner should do
From October 2026, the wage requirement (monthly pay of 88,000 yen or more, or about 1.06 million yen a year) for short-time workers to enroll in employees' pension and health insurance will be abolished. As a result, a short-time worker at a company with 51 or more employees who works at least 20 prescribed hours a week becomes eligible regardless of pay. This does not mean the insurance-premium burden disappears; rather, the scope of coverage expands. The company-size requirement (51 or more employees) remains for now, and will be phased out in stages from October 2027 to October 2035. This article explains what changes, what remains, and what a business should check.
The 1.3 million yen wall — can an employer's certification carry you through a temporary rise in income?
Even if a part-timer's annual income temporarily exceeds 1.3 million yen, if the excess is due to a temporary circumstance such as overtime or a busy period, the employer can certify this and the person may keep their dependent status. This "smoothing of dependent certification through the employer's certification" is, in principle, available up to two consecutive years. However, it is the insurer (Kyokai Kenpo or a health insurance society), not the company, that ultimately decides whether to recognize a person as a dependent. All the company can do is correctly certify a temporary circumstance.
The overtime ceiling is set by the 36 Agreement — how far can you leave it to a shakai hoken roumushi?
How much overtime you can have is not something a company can decide freely. To have workers work overtime or on days off, you must conclude a "36 Agreement", file it with the head of the competent Labor Standards Inspection Office, and stay within its limits. The ceiling is in principle 45 hours a month and 360 hours a year; even under a special clause it is within 720 hours a year, under 100 hours in a single month, and within 80 hours averaged over several months. Working overtime without filing is subject to a penalty (Labor Standards Act, Article 119). This page explains the framework and how far you can leave it to a shakai hoken roumushi.
Can I ask an AI about a labour question first, and then consult a shakai hoken roumushi?
Of course. Coming in after you have looked it up actually makes the consultation faster. But AI answers drift at the level of article numbers and effective dates. We show real errors we caught against the primary sources, and how to bring in what you found. The first consultation is free.
Can we put employee information into an AI?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer. Employee information is personal data; feeding it into generative AI sits within the framework of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, and Japan's Personal Information Protection Commission has issued an alert. We set out the "no-training" settings and their limits, the four rules to fix in advance, and how this office itself handles data.
Can work rules drafted by an AI actually be filed?
Yes. There is no prescribed format for work rules, and no one asks who drafted them. The problems lie in the content and the procedure — a written record of the majority representative's opinion must be attached (Labor Standards Act, Article 90), the rules must be made known to workers (Article 106), and rules that do not match reality will not function in a dispute.
How to introduce digital wage payment — the labour-management agreement and practical pitfalls
Digital wage payment lets an employer pay wages into the account of a fund transfer service operator designated by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare (a so-called "〇〇Pay"), provided the worker consents. It became possible in April 2023 when the Ordinance for Enforcement of the Labour Standards Act was revised. Introduction requires a labour-management agreement and the individual consent of each worker, and there is no duty to move the whole of the wages. This article organises what to include in the agreement and the consent, the 1-million-yen account balance cap, how to check whether an operator is designated, and what to put in order in the work rules and payroll system.
Social insurance for staff posted to China — avoiding double pension cover under the Japan–China Social Security Agreement
Post an employee to China and, as long as the employment relationship with the Japanese company continues, their Japanese employees' pension cover remains, while China also requires enrolment in its employees' basic old-age insurance — so pension contributions can arise twice. The Japan–China Social Security Agreement, in force since 1 September 2019, addresses this. It covers pension only. For a temporary posting of up to five years, a certificate of coverage issued by the Japan Pension Service lets the worker stay, in principle, only in the Japanese pension system. Health insurance is not covered by the agreement. Status-of-residence applications go to a Gyoseishoshi, tax to a tax accountant.
How far has the AI integration between freee HR and freee Accounting actually come?
freee publishes APIs across five areas including accounting and HR, and in March 2026 it released freee-mcp as open-source software, letting AI agents operate those APIs directly. On the HR side, AI Year-End Adjustment Assist and the AI Attendance Checker came first. Working from the official announcements, we set out what becomes automatic and what remains a matter of judgement.
Shall we start by reviewing how you work?
四葉社会保険労務士事務所 (Kohinata, Bunkyo-ku; a 5-minute walk from Myogadani Station on the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line) helps you, starting with a review of your current labour practices.
LINE connects you directly to our representative, Joji Uramatsu. Messages are accepted 24/7 and answered in order.
5 min walk from Myogadani Sta. (Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line)｜Tue & Wed 10:00–19:00 / Mon, Thu–Sun 18:00–19:00