Rest breaks (休憩): The statutory break during the working day: 45 minutes after six hours, an hour after eight

The rule is short. More than six hours of work in a day requires a break of at least 45 minutes; more than eight hours requires at least 60. Exactly six hours requires none, and exactly eight requires only 45. The break may be split, but it must come during the working day, not at the start or the end. Employers can give more than the minimum; most Japanese offices give a one-hour lunch.

Three further principles apply. Breaks must be given to all employees at the same time, unless a labour-management agreement allows staggered breaks or the industry is exempt, as in transport, retail, finance, healthcare and hospitality. Employees must be free to use the time as they wish, within reasonable workplace rules. And breaks are unpaid, which is why they matter.

The test of a break is release from work, not the label. A lunch hour spent answering the phone at the desk, waiting for customers or staying on call is working time. In the Daisei Building Management case of 2002, the Supreme Court held that overnight nap time for building staff who had to respond to alarms was working time, because they were not released from their duties. The same reasoning applies to standby time in other settings.

What it means for a foreign employer

Desk lunches count as work. If a receptionist or a small team covers the phones over lunch, that hour is working time and may push them into overtime.
The extra 15 minutes is easy to miss. Staff with a 45-minute break who work late cross eight hours and are owed another 15 minutes of break. Build that into schedules for long days.
Check overseas calls at lunch. Japan-based staff who join regional calls in their break are working. Either move the break or record the time.
Remote workers need breaks too. The rule applies at home, and records of breaks are part of the evidence in any unpaid overtime claim.

Sources

Labour Standards Act, Article 34, and Article 40 with the enforcement ordinance (industry exemptions from simultaneous breaks).
Supreme Court, Daisei Building Management case, 28 February 2002.

Spotted something wrong, or have an example from your own hiring in Japan? Suggest an edit.

General information for employers, not legal advice. Thresholds and dates are checked against the sources listed and dated above; confirm anything you act on with a Japanese employment lawyer or a licensed labour and social security attorney.