Labor points reviewed in external audits
What external audits under Employment for Skill Development examine is whether labor laws are being observed. The subject matter is labor itself — working hours, wages, safety and health, housing. Here is what supervising support organizations and host companies should have in place, from a labor consultant's standpoint.
What does an external audit look at?
What the external auditor verifies is whether the supervising support organization's supervision and audit work is being carried out properly. And what that supervision faces is nothing other than the host company's compliance with labor laws. So what is actually examined is labor matters like these:
- Working hours — how records are kept, overtime and holiday-work limits, and whether the Article 36 agreement matches reality
- Wages — minimum wage, premium-pay calculation, grounds for deductions, wage-ledger entries
- Safety and health — health checkups, training, the working environment
- Housing — dormitory conditions, and how charges collected relate to actual costs
- Terms of acceptance — whether the employment contract is equal to or better than that of Japanese workers
* The scope of documents subject to review is set out in Chapter 5 of the Immigration Services Agency's operational guidelines for the system. The system is pre-enforcement, and some subordinate notices and operational details are still to come (unverified).
If you are preparing, where do you start?
What causes trouble at an audit is not ignorance of the system but the absence of records. The order is as follows.
| Step | What to do | Why first |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Standardize how attendance is recorded | Wage calculation and Article 36 management both build on this |
| 2 | Cross-check the wage ledger against the employment contracts | Deductions cannot be explained unless their grounds are in the contract |
| 3 | Align the work rules with actual practice | Practices not in the rules will always be questioned |
| 4 | Sort out dormitory charges versus actual costs | Housing is weighted heavily under this system |
What about language barriers?
Audits include interviews with the foreign workers themselves. Through an interpreter, explanations of hours and wages can lose precision. This office's representative, a former China General Bureau Chief of the Mainichi Shimbun, works in Chinese (traditional and simplified) and English, so verification can be done without an outside interpreter.
Can the external auditor be an administrative scrivener or a labor consultant?
The ordinance lists, as persons eligible to serve as external auditor, attorneys, Certified Social Insurance and Labor Consultants, and administrative scriveners (and their professional corporations), plus persons with expertise in the system.
At Yotsuba, either 四葉行政書士事務所 or 四葉社会保険労務士事務所 can take the engagement. Contracts are separate per office, so if you already deal with one of them, you can keep to that office.
The external auditor's requirements (completing the training, independence, disqualification grounds, consent to publication of name) and how to choose whom to engage are covered here: → External auditors under Employment for Skill Development (四葉行政書士事務所)
* 四葉行政書士事務所 and 四葉社会保険労務士事務所 are independent business entities and accept engagements separately (no referral fees are paid or received).
What if a company we advise is a host company?
We will not serve as external auditor for that supervising support organization. External auditors must be independent of the organization and its related parties. We go beyond checking the formal requirements and draw the line as a matter of policy。
- We do not enter labor advisory contracts with related parties (member host companies) of an organization whose external auditor we serve as
- We do not serve as external auditor for an organization that an existing advisory client belongs to
- This separation applies whichever office — administrative scrivener or labor consultant — takes the engagement
The one who verifies from outside and the one who advises from inside should not be the same person. Splitting the offices does not change that it is the same person, so the treatment stays the same. Please let us first confirm whether any such relationship exists.
How much does it cost?
Individually quoted. The workload depends on the number of workplaces and whether we accompany on-site checks. When you contact us, please tell us the number of workplaces and the scale of acceptance.
Sources for this page
- Act on Proper Implementation of Employment for Skill Development and Protection of Foreign Workers (Act No. 89 of 2016), Article 25, Paragraph 1, Item 5; effective April 1, 2027 (Reiwa 9); last amended by Act No. 60 of 2024. The Act was not newly enacted in 2024 — it is the Technical Intern Training Act as amended and retitled by Act No. 60 of 2024
- Its ordinance (Ministry of Justice / MHLW Ordinance No. 4 of 2025, promulgated September 30, 2025), Article 47; effective April 1, 2027; last amended by Ordinance No. 3 of 2026. Paragraph 2, Item 2 expressly lists attorneys, labor consultants, and administrative scriveners
- Audit method and documents reviewed = Immigration Services Agency operational guidelines, Chapter 5 (updated August 5, 2026; checked August 6, 2026)
- Working hours, wages, safety = Labor Standards Act (Act No. 49 of 1947); Industrial Safety and Health Act (Act No. 57 of 1972); Minimum Wage Act (Act No. 137 of 1959)
* Article numbers are cited from primary sources checked on the 四葉行政書士事務所 page on August 6, 2026. The specific scope of documents reviewed, audit frequency, and when pre-enforcement license applications open are all undetermined as of writing (unverified).
This page is general information. Individual cases are advised after review by the licensed consultant.