Each bureau sits between the ministry and the local offices that employers deal with day to day. The Labour Standards Inspection Offices handle hours, wages and safety; Hello Work handles job placement and employment insurance. The bureau itself has its own enforcement remit, covering harassment prevention, equal employment opportunity, equal pay for non-regular workers, childcare and caregiver leave, and the licensing and supervision of dispatch and placement agencies.
Since 2001, the bureaus have also run a three-step service for individual disputes between an employer and an employee. Anyone can bring a question to one of the general labour consultation corners, of which there were 379 in fiscal 2024. If there is a dispute, the employee can ask the bureau director for advice and guidance to the employer. Or either side can apply for mediation, known as assen, before a dispute coordinating committee of lawyers and academics. The service is free and confidential. In fiscal 2024 there were 1,201,881 consultations, the fifth year in a row above 1.2 million, about 8,900 requests for advice and guidance and about 3,900 mediation applications. Bullying and harassment was the most common subject for the thirteenth year running.
Mediation is voluntary. The employer can decline to attend, and if either side refuses a proposal the case simply closes. Settlements reached this way tend to be much smaller than those in the labour tribunal.
What it means for a foreign employer
- An invitation to mediate is worth answering. Declining is allowed, but the employee's next step is usually a tribunal or a union, both of which cost more.
- The bureau enforces the harassment rules. Complaints about power harassment or maternity harassment go here, and the bureau can issue guidance and, in some cases, publish names.
- It approves some schemes. Exemptions from the five-year conversion rule for re-employed retirees, for example, need a plan approved by the bureau.
- Agency use is supervised here. Questions about disguised dispatch or unlicensed agencies are a bureau matter.
Sources
- Act on Promoting the Resolution of Individual Labour-Related Disputes (Act No. 112 of 2001).
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Status of the Individual Labour Dispute Resolution System in Fiscal 2024 (2025).