Deemed working hours are designed for people who spend the day out of the office: field sales staff, travelling inspectors, and similar roles where nobody can see when they start, stop or take breaks. If the rule applies, the employee is treated as having worked the prescribed hours. Where the task usually takes longer, the deemed figure is the time normally needed, which can be fixed in a labour-management agreement, and must be filed if it exceeds eight hours.
It is a different system from discretionary work. Discretionary work covers specified professional or planning jobs regardless of where they are done; deemed working hours depend on location and on whether hours can be calculated. They do not remove the rules on late-night work or statutory days off.
The hard condition is that hours must be difficult to calculate. In the Hankyu Travel Support case of 2014, the Supreme Court held that the rule did not apply to tour conductors whose itineraries were fixed and who reported in detail. In the Kyodo Kumiai Globe case of April 2024, the Court overturned a lower ruling that had relied on daily reports to deny the rule, and sent the case back, emphasising that the nature of the work and how instructions and reports actually worked must be weighed together. With smartphones and logging, many roles that once qualified no longer do. Government telework guidance accepts the rule for home working only where the employee is not kept constantly connected and is not working to specific instructions.
What it means for a foreign employer
- Do not use it for regular sales staff with a CRM. If you can see every visit and call in real time, hours are calculable, and the deemed hours will not hold up.
- It is a frequent source of back-pay claims. If the rule fails, the employee is owed overtime on actual hours for up to three years.
- Telework is not automatically covered. Apply it to remote staff only with care and documented conditions.
Sources
- Labour Standards Act, Article 38-2.
- Supreme Court, Hankyu Travel Support case, 24 January 2014; Supreme Court, Kyodo Kumiai Globe case, 16 April 2024.
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, guidelines on the appropriate introduction and implementation of telework (revised March 2021).