Japan Press Weekly

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2014 November 26 - December 2 [LABOR]

Many companies under Keidanren leadership can impose more than 80 hours of overtime work a month

Seventy-eight percent of 40 companies whose chairman is an executive member of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) or the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) can legally force their workers to work overtime for more than 80 hours a month.

The 80h/m overtime work is the danger line set by the labor ministry for death from overtime (karoshi).

Information disclosed at the request of Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Koike Akira (House of Councilors) and Akahata revealed the extent of this practice.

At Toray Industries, Inc. where Keidanren Chairman Sakakibara Sadayuki serves as chairman, workers work overtime of up to 100 hours a month or 900 hours a year after its workers’ union agreed to a special clause with the company.

This clause is dubbed the “36 agreement” named after Article 36 of the Labor Standards Act, which allows employers to impose overtime more than the legal working hours of an 8-hour day and 40-hour week. In addition to this special measure, Keidanren is calling for the legalization of overtime without pay.

Some examples follow:

At Oji Holdings Corporation, whose chairman is a Keidanren vice chairman, the upper limit of overtime is 9 hours a day or 135 hours a month. Likewise, 8h/d or 80h/m at Toyota Motor Corporation; 12h/d or 130h/m at Toshiba Corporation; 13h/d or 400 hours per three months at Hitachi, Ltd; 13.75h/d or 150h/m in NTT Corporation; and 13h/d or 150h/m at Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corps whose CEO is an executive director of Keizai Doyukai.