If you employ a person in Japan, you are required to comply with Japanese labor laws.

First, you must clearly specify in writing the employee’s job duties, wages, workplace, working hours, holidays, and other essential employment conditions. If the employee requests electronic disclosure, providing these terms electronically is also acceptable.

Working hours must not exceed 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week. If you require employees to work overtime, you must enter into and file a labor-management agreement under Article 36 of the Labor Standards Act (a so-called “Article 36 Agreement”) with the relevant Labor Standards Inspection Office. Even with such an agreement, overtime work generally must not exceed 100 hours per month, including holiday work, under statutory limits. Overtime work, late-night work, and work on statutory holidays require premium wage payments.

If you employ ten or more employees, you are required to prepare work rules and file them with the Labor Standards Inspection Office.

Dismissals must be objectively reasonable and socially appropriate under the circumstances. In general, Japan has strict rules on dismissal in order to protect employees, who are considered to have weaker bargaining power than employers.