JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Junichi Ueda, Etsuko Hara, Nobuto Shirane, Takahiro Hayase, Yutaka Shimoo and Miki Goto, Anderson Mori & Tomotsune
term than is necessary (Article 17, paragraph 2 of the LCA). Under the LCA, a fixed-term contract employee who has been, or is expected to be, employed by their employer for more than five years is allowed to convert their employment contract to an indefinite-term employment contract upon request to their employer (Article 18 of the LCA). In addition, even if a fixed-term contract employee has not been (or is not expected to be) employed by their employer for more than five years when the employer decides not to renew the fixed-term employee’s contract upon its expiry, the employer must have an “objectively legitimate and socially justifiable cause” (see 4.4 Termination of Employment Contracts ) for such non-renewal if: • the status of the fixed-term employment contract is not substantively different from an employment contract without a definite period (eg, as a result of repeated renewals of the contract); or • the fixed-term contract employee has a reasonable expectation that their fixed-term employment contract will be renewed (Article 19 of the LCA). 4.3 Working Time Basic Working Time Regulations As a general rule, employees’ working hours may not exceed eight hours per day or 40 hours per week (Article 32 of the LSA). Any work exceed - ing eight hours per day or 40 hours per week is recognised as statutory overtime work. A rest period of at least 45 minutes must be granted during working hours to employees who work for more than six hours per day and a rest period of at least 60 minutes must be granted to employees who work for more than eight hours
per day. As a general rule, the employer must grant all of its employees a simultaneous rest period (Article 34 of the LSA). Employees are also entitled to take at least one day of holiday per week (statutory weekly holi - day) (Article 35 of the LSA). Article 36 Agreement In order to have employees perform statutory overtime work or work on a statutory weekly holiday, the employer is required to execute a labour management agreement ( saburoku kyotei , or “Article 36 agreement”) with the major - ity trade union (or, if such a union does not exist, with the employee representative) and submit it to the Labour Standards Inspection Office prior to having the employees commence any statu - tory overtime work or work on statutory weekly holidays (Articles 32, 35 and 36 of the LSA). In addition, the employer must refer to the pos - sibility of statutory overtime work and work on statutory weekly holidays in the rules of employ - ment (if any) in advance of requiring the overtime or holiday work. Extra Wages When an employee has performed statutory overtime work or work on a statutory weekly holiday, the employer must pay extra wages for that work calculated at the rate of: • 125% of the normal salary per hour of statu - tory overtime work for up to 60 hours per month and 150% thereof if the statutory overtime work hours exceed 60 hours per month; or • 135% of the normal salary per hour of work on a statutory weekly holiday (Article 37 of the LSA).
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