JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Atsushi Igarashi, Yoichiro Kuriyama, Misa Takahashi and Kosuke Ojio, TMI Associates
ance code for national federations requires that national federations establish an automatic acceptance clause regarding the jurisdiction of sports arbitration conducted by the JSAA. As of 1 October 2024, the adoption rate of the auto - matic acceptance clause in sports organisations is 82.7%. 6.3 Challenging Sports Governing Bodies Sports governing bodies may dismiss or sus - pend persons, reduce subsidies or impose sanc - tions in line with their own rules. Any person who wishes to challenge the decisions made by a sports organisation may file an objection under the appeal system established within that sports organisation. The proceedings will be in line with the rules established by the organisation. See 6.2 ADR (Including Arbitration) for further information on the appeals system administered by the JSAA. There are several types of relationships between sports organisations and players. These relation - ships depend on: • the nature of the sport (eg, individual or team); • the history of the sport; • the degree of professionalisation of the sport; • the level of popularity of the sport; • the level of competition; and • the policies of the governing body. For example, players who engage in individual sports, such as tennis or golf, may conclude a 7. Employment 7.1 Sports-Related Employment Contracts
contract with each sports organisation hosting each competition and receive remuneration from the organisation concerned. In contrast, players who engage in team sports, such as baseball, football or basketball, may receive remuneration from their club (or the company that owns the club). Player Contracts In general, a professional player contract is con - sidered to be a consignment contract, instead of an employment contract. That being said, for certain sports, such as rugby, in addition to having professional player contracts, semi-pro - fessional contracts, having the characteristics of a consignment contract and an employment contract, are sometimes concluded depending on the degree of professionalisation of the sport and the skill and competence of the athletes. These semi-professional contracts may include provisions wherein each player of the club becomes an employee of the company owning the club and continues to work for the company after retirement. In addition, there are some sports where pro - fessional athletes have different contracts, and some where all professional athletes enter into the same uniform player contracts. Uniform player contracts are particularly present in large- scale and established sports, such as baseball, football and basketball in Japan. Salary Caps and Transfer Restrictions Salary caps have been introduced in some sports. For example, in the J.League, there are certain limitations on players’ salaries, which are based on contract type. A salary cap of JPY6.7 million applies to Professional A contract players in their first year, but there is no cap from their second year on. An annual salary cap of JPY4.6
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