A 62-year-old public elementary school teacher in Saitama sued for about 2.42 million yen in overtime pay. On October 1, 2021, the Saitama District Court dismissed the claim. The court said that teachers are expected to carry out their duties by their own independent judgment.
In an added remark, the court questioned the law that pays teachers a fixed allowance instead of overtime. It said the system may no longer fit the reality of schools.
Mochikaeri zangyō (持ち帰り残業): take-home overtime. Work that was not finished during working hours and is continued at home or in a café. An HR glossary by the company jinjer says it is also called furoshiki zangyō, wrapping-cloth overtime, because company documents are carried home.
The glossary adds that it counts as working time when the employer has instructed it, expressly or by implication.
On January 20, 2017, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare issued a guideline on how employers must keep track of working hours. As a rule, they must use objective records such as time cards, IC cards or computer usage logs. Where hours are self-reported, the employer must check, if necessary, whether they match the actual hours.
The guideline also forbids caps on the overtime a worker may report, such as refusing reports above a limit.
A notice of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of July 1, 2019 deals with kensan, the study doctors do on their own outside scheduled hours. Study that is not essential to the work, done of free will, outside working hours, offered by the doctor on his or her own initiative, and without express or implied instruction from a superior is generally not working time, even at the hospital.
Preparation for treatment and follow-up work that is essential to treatment count as working time.
In fiscal 2024, 40.5 percent of eligible Japanese men took childcare leave, up from 30.1 percent the year before. The figures come from the Basic Survey of Equal Employment of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
An older survey commissioned by the ministry, reported in 2014, asked men who had wanted to take leave but did not why. Of them, 29.1 percent said the workplace had an atmosphere in which it was hard to take childcare leave. Another 25.1 percent said it was a workplace where time off was hard to take at any time.
A future employee wrote to a Japanese personal finance site before starting work in April. The company had told the writer about a rule: new employees come to work early in the morning and clean.
The site answered with the definition of working time from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Working time is any time under the employer’s direction, whether the direction is stated or implied. Early cleaning that the company directs, even tacitly, counts as working time and must be paid, even if no rule is written down.
Tatemae (建前): the principle one officially stands by. The outward view. A dictionary gives the example Ano hito wa tatemae to honne ga mattaku chigau, that person’s public stance and true feelings are completely different.
Honne (本音): one’s true thoughts or feelings, as opposed to what one says in public for the sake of harmony.
Deru kui wa utareru (出る杭は打たれる): the stake that sticks out gets hammered. A person who stands out or oversteps tends to be resented and criticized by others.