JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Atsushi Igarashi, Yoichiro Kuriyama, Misa Takahashi and Kosuke Ojio, TMI Associates
million applies to Professional B and Profes - sional C contract players. Starting from the 2026 season, the J.League will revise its player contract system. The existing contract categories (Professional A, Professional B, Professional C, and Amateur) will be abol - ished and will be simplified to Professional and Amateur. The first-year salary cap for Profes - sional players will increase to JPY12 million and a minimum salary will be introduced. This will be JPY4.8 million for J1, JPY3.6 million for J2 and JPY2.4 million for J3. The Japan Fair Trade Commission (the “JFTC” ) has officially announced that any rules that limit or restrict the transfer of athletes indefinitely may violate the Anti-monopoly Act. On 19 Septem - ber 2024, the JFTC issued a warning to Nip - pon Professional Baseball (NPB), stating that its practice of prohibiting players from appointing individuals other than lawyers as agents for con - tract negotiations, as well as its restriction pre - venting players from appointing agents who are already representing other players, could poten - tially violate the Anti-monopoly Act. In response, NPB decided to discontinue this practice. Sports organisations having rules limiting or restricting the transfer of athletes are therefore required to verify the rationality and necessity of the rules. 7.2 Employer/Employee Rights In general, a professional athlete does not fall under the category of “worker” under the Labour Standards Law. “worker” under the Labour Standards Law is “a person who is employed at a business and to whom wages are paid regard- less of the type of occupation” . In addition, labour unions may be organised and collective bargaining may be sought against employers if an athlete is recognised as “worker” under the Labour Union Law.
Under the Labour Union Law, “worker” is “per- son living on wages, salaries or other equivalent income regardless of the kind of occupation” . In fact, the Japan Professional Baseball Play - ers Association and the Japan Pro-Footballers Association are recognised as labour unions under the Labour Union Law. In these cases, relevant leagues and teams may therefore not treat an athlete in a disadvantageous manner because of the activities of the athletes’ union, and they may not reject the collective bargaining sought by the athletes’ union without due cause. 7.3 Free Movement of Athletes There is no Japanese law directly restricting the participation of foreign athletes in sports tournaments/competitions. That said, all activi - ties undertaken in Japan by foreigners seeking entrance to Japan must correspond to an author - ised activity under one of the residence statuses provided in the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. In general, the activities of a professional athlete would fall under the resi - dence status of “entertainer” , and the activities of amateur athletes (when the company pays the athlete a monthly remuneration of JPY250,000 or more) would fall under the residence status of “designated activities” . Certain leagues have established foreign player quotas, including the leagues for baseball, foot - ball, basketball and sumo wrestling. For exam - ple, in the J.League, each J1 club is currently allowed to include five “foreigners” in the start- ing line-up, with exemptions for players from J.League partner countries. These countries are Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Singa - pore, Indonesia and Malaysia.
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