Opening a funeral business: how to organise night duty, on-call standby and busy-season work

In short: At a funeral business, on-call standby and naps are working time if the worker is under the employer's direction and supervision with a duty to respond or turn out, even without actual work (Supreme Court, 9 March 2000, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagasaki Shipyard; Supreme Court, 28 February 2002, Ohsei Building Management). "Night duty" that is taken out of the working-hours rules is allowed only where you obtain the permission of the director of the labour standards inspection office for intermittent work with ordinarily almost no need to work (Labor Standards Act, Article 41, item 3; Enforcement Ordinance, Article 23; Notice Hatsuki No. 17 of 13 September 1947). Busy-season swings are best levelled with a one-month variable working-hours system (Article 32-2); the deemed-working-hours system (Article 38-2) is generally hard to use where there is standby for immediate response. This article sets out the working-time and wage design when opening and running a funeral business, from a labour viewpoint.

"We never know when a call will come in, 24 hours a day," and "staff are called even during naps — do we have to pay for that?" — these are common questions from owners who are starting or running a funeral business. This page addresses the industry's own pattern of immediate response, on-call standby, late-night turnouts and seasonal swings, and sets out whether standby counts as working time, how night-duty permission works, and how to design a variable working-hours system and premium wages. Working-time and wage design is the work of a Shakai Hoken Roumushi; the permits for hearse transport and for cremation and cemetery matters, and the arrangement of a ceremony hall, are handled by different parties, which we set out at the end.

Do a funeral business's on-call standby and naps have to be treated as working time?

The first point to grasp is that time spent merely "waiting at the facility or at home" can still be working time. Whether time is working time is decided not by the work rules or the label but by the objective standard of whether the worker is under the employer's direction and supervision (Supreme Court, 9 March 2000, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagasaki Shipyard).

Form of standby	Likely working time?	Thinking
Napping at the office and turning out immediately on a transport request	Likely	Not guaranteed release from work; with a duty to respond it is hand-waiting time and so working time (Supreme Court, 28 February 2002, Ohsei Building Management)
Waiting at the office while answering the phone	Likely	Hand-waiting time with a duty to respond; working time even without actual work
On-call at home (turn out when called)	Depends	Judged by how much freedom of action is restricted; some designs count only turnout time, but it depends on the reality of the constraint
A fully free break with no call-out and no duty to respond	Unlikely	If released from work, not working time

In the Ohsei Building Management case, the Supreme Court held that because the building manager had a duty to respond immediately to alarms and calls and was required to stay in the nap room, the nap time was working time even without actual work. The same thinking applies to a funeral business's naps and standby if immediate response to transport or enquiries is required. The line between night shift and night duty is the same issue at a disability group home; see night shift and night duty at a group home differ completely for labour management.

When can you obtain night-duty permission from the labour standards inspection office?

Where you want to take standby or naps out of the working-hours rules, the tool is "night/day duty." Under Article 41, item 3 of the Labor Standards Act (exemption for persons engaged in surveillance or intermittent work) and Article 23 of the Enforcement Ordinance, only where you obtain the permission of the director of the labour standards inspection office (Form No. 10) for intermittent work can you be exempt from the working-hours rules of Article 32. The general standard is set out in Notice Hatsuki No. 17 of 13 September 1947, roughly on the following four points.

Item	General permission standard (Notice Hatsuki No. 17)
Content of work	A duty with ordinarily almost no need to work; the ordinary duties are not performed, limited to scheduled rounds, receiving urgent calls and documents, standing by for emergencies, and the like
Allowance	The allowance per night/day duty must not be less than one-third of the average daily wage per person paid to workers of the same kind
Frequency	In principle, night duty is limited to once a week and day duty to once a month
Sleep	Adequate sleeping facilities must be provided for night duty

Here is the industry's own difficulty. Even if it is called night duty, if the reality is that ordinary duties such as transport turnouts and dealing with the bereaved are performed frequently at night, it does not meet "ordinarily almost no need to work" and does not qualify. That time is working time and subject to late-night and overtime premiums. The concrete line in medical and care settings is set out in when night-duty permission can be obtained in medical and care settings. Whether permission is granted is decided case by case by the labour standards inspection office on the basis of the reality.

Can a variable working-hours system or deemed hours be used for work with large busy-season swings?

A funeral business has large swings between times when ceremonies concentrate and quieter times. To reflect this in working hours, a variable working-hours system is the basic option.

System	Basis	Suited to	Caution
One-month variable working-hours system	Labor Standards Act, Article 32-2	Swings within a month; set by labour-management agreement or work rules, specifying each day's and week's scheduled hours in advance	Average 40 hours a week or less; if the advance specification breaks down, it reverts to ordinary overtime calculation
One-year variable working-hours system	Labor Standards Act, Article 32-4	Seasonal swings; a labour-management agreement must be concluded and filed	Limits on working days, consecutive working days, and daily/weekly maximums
Deemed-working-hours system (work outside the workplace)	Labor Standards Act, Article 38-2	Field work where working hours are hard to calculate	At a funeral business where instructions can be given at any time by mobile phone and standby can be managed, it is hard to say hours are "difficult to calculate," so generally hard to use

In practice it is hard to use the deemed-working-hours system widely at a funeral business that carries immediate-response standby; the sound approach is to design scheduled hours with a variable working-hours system first and manage the excess as overtime. For using a variable working-hours system versus flextime, see how to choose between a variable working-hours system and flextime. Hearse drivers may separately be subject to the Improvement Standards Notice on working hours for automobile drivers; see also the logistics 2024 problem and the Improvement Standards Notice.

How do you design premium wages and hand-waiting time where there are many late-night and holiday turnouts?

At a funeral business with many late-night and holiday turnouts, the design of premium wages drives both wage cost and unpaid-wage risk. The premium rates under Article 37 of the Labor Standards Act are as follows.

Category	Premium rate	Basis
Overtime (beyond statutory hours)	25% or more	Labor Standards Act, Article 37, paragraph 1
Portion of overtime exceeding 60 hours a month	50% or more (applied to small and medium enterprises too, from 1 April 2023)	Article 37, paragraph 1, proviso
Late-night work (10 p.m.–5 a.m.)	25% or more	Article 37, paragraph 4
Statutory holiday work	35% or more	Article 37, paragraph 1

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As a premise for premiums, a 36 Agreement must be concluded and filed to have workers do overtime beyond statutory hours or holiday work. Further, where the on-call standby or a nap with a duty to respond counts as working time (hand-waiting time), that time too is included in the overtime and late-night calculation. A design that "pays only for the actual turnout work" leaves pay owing once the standby itself is judged to be working time. The extinctive prescription of a wage claim is, for the time being, three years (Labor Standards Act, Article 115 and Supplementary Provisions), so three years' worth may be claimed together. For the requirements when using fixed overtime pay, see the requirements for lawful fixed overtime pay and settlement of the difference; for the pitfall of a manager in name only, see the scope of a manager and the manager-in-name-only problem. Recording start and end times and the reality of standby objectively is the starting point of the design.

How do you split consultations: labour to the Shakai Hoken Roumushi, transport and cremation permits to the Gyoseishoshi, the hall to real estate?

Opening and running a funeral business involves procedures across several professional fields. Because the deciding party differs, it is reliable to consult by role.

What is done	Whose responsibility
Putting in order work rules, the night-duty regulation, the 36 Agreement and a variable working-hours system; calculating premium wages; designing attendance management	Shakai Hoken Roumushi (this office)
Permits for hearse transport (general trucking business, etc.), permits for cremation and cemetery matters, administrative procedures for the business	Gyoseishoshi
Arranging business premises such as a ceremony hall and office	Real estate (our company)
Deciding and granting whether night-duty permission can be obtained	Labour standards inspection office (the operator applies)
Claims for unpaid wages, dismissal and labour disputes	Attorney

This office (四葉社会保険労務士事務所) handles putting labour matters in order. Permits for hearse transport and for cremation and cemetery matters are handled by 四葉行政書士事務所, and the hall by 四葉不動産; these are separate business entities, each engaged under a separate contract and contracted separately. Rather than taking everything on through one window, we connect you to the party suited to each field. For where to consult on disputes over dismissal or unpaid wages, see also dismissal: the Shakai Hoken Roumushi or an attorney.

What can 四葉社会保険労務士事務所 do?

四葉社会保険労務士事務所, in Kohinata, Bunkyo City, handles sorting out the reality of standby and naps; putting in order the night-duty regulation, work rules, the 36 Agreement and a variable working-hours system; calculating premium wages; designing attendance management; and supporting the night-duty permission application (Form No. 10). For the thinking on cost including payroll, see how much does it cost to entrust payroll to a Shakai Hoken Roumushi. Consultation is free. For fees, see the fee schedule; for frequently asked questions, see the FAQ.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Do we not have to pay for time staff nap at the office ready for a transport call?
A. You often do. If there is a duty to respond and turn out immediately and release from work is not guaranteed, it is hand-waiting time and so working time even without actual work (Supreme Court, 28 February 2002, Ohsei Building Management). If it is working time, the portion falling in late-night or overtime hours is subject to premium wages.

Q. If we label it "night duty," can we take night-time standby out of working time?
A. It is judged by the reality, not the label. To take night duty out of the working-hours rules, it must meet requirements such as being intermittent work with ordinarily almost no need to work, and you must obtain the permission of the director of the labour standards inspection office (Form No. 10) (Labor Standards Act, Article 41, item 3; Enforcement Ordinance, Article 23; Notice Hatsuki No. 17). Where transport and dealing with the bereaved occur frequently at night, permission is generally not granted.

Q. Which system can we use to adjust working hours between busy and quiet seasons?
A. A one-month (Labor Standards Act, Article 32-2) or one-year (Article 32-4) variable working-hours system is the basis. You specify each day's and week's scheduled hours in advance and keep the average within 40 hours a week. At a funeral business where instructions can be given at any time and standby can be managed, the deemed-working-hours system (Article 38-2) is hard to say is "difficult to calculate" and is generally hard to use.

Q. Where there are many late-night turnouts, how do the premiums stack?
A. Overtime beyond statutory hours is 25% or more; of that, the portion over 60 hours a month is 50% or more (applied to small and medium enterprises too, from 1 April 2023); late-night from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. is 25% or more; a statutory holiday is 35% or more (Labor Standards Act, Article 37). Time that falls into more than one category, such as overtime at late night, adds the respective premium rates together.

Sources

• Labor Standards Act (Act No. 49 of 1947): Article 32 (statutory working hours), Article 32-2 (one-month variable working-hours system), Article 32-4 (one-year variable working-hours system), Article 37 (premium wages; overtime/holiday 25–35% or more, over 60 hours a month 50% or more, late-night 25% or more), Article 38-2 (deemed-working-hours system for work outside the workplace), Article 41, item 3 (exemption for persons engaged in surveillance or intermittent work), Article 115 and Supplementary Provisions (extinctive prescription of wage claims; three years for the time being)
• Ordinance for Enforcement of the Labor Standards Act (Ministry of Health and Welfare Ordinance No. 23 of 1947), Article 23 (permission for intermittent work in night or day duty; Form No. 10)
• General night/day duty permission standard = Notice Hatsuki No. 17 of 13 September 1947 (ordinarily almost no need to work; the allowance is one-third or more of the average daily wage per person; night duty once a week and day duty once a month; adequate sleeping facilities for night duty)
• Whether hand-waiting time and nap time count as working time = Supreme Court, 9 March 2000, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagasaki Shipyard (working time is time under the employer's direction and supervision and is determined objectively); Supreme Court, 28 February 2002, Ohsei Building Management (inactive nap time without guaranteed release from work is working time)
• The 50%-or-more premium for over 60 hours a month applies to small and medium enterprises from 1 April 2023 (the previous grace measure was abolished); confirmed from materials published by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (as of October 2026)
• Whether, and how, a hearse-transport permit (trucking business) and cremation/cemetery permits are required varies with the business form; the premise is to confirm the relevant ministry's and municipality's official guidance just before writing (this article does not judge individual applicability)

This article does not decide whom to consult. Putting in order work rules, the night-duty regulation, the 36 Agreement and a variable working-hours system, calculating premium wages, designing attendance management, and supporting the night-duty permission application are the work of a Shakai Hoken Roumushi. Whether night-duty permission is granted is decided by the labour standards inspection office; permits for hearse transport and cremation/cemetery matters are the work of a Gyoseishoshi; arranging a hall is real estate; and claims for unpaid wages and disputes are the work of an attorney. These are separate business entities, each engaged under a separate contract and contracted separately. For fees when consulting 四葉社会保険労務士事務所, see the fee schedule; for frequently asked questions, see the FAQ.

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).