The idea comes from Europe, where the Working Time Directive requires 11 consecutive hours of daily rest. In Japan it is still largely voluntary. The 2018 Work Style Reform amended the Act on Special Measures for Improvement of Working Hours Arrangements so that, from April 2019, employers must make efforts to introduce an interval between shifts. There is no penalty and no minimum length set by law.
Companies that adopt it write it into the work rules. If an employee finishes at 11pm and the interval is 11 hours, they start no earlier than 10am. Employers then decide whether the late start counts as worked time, so the employee is not docked pay, or whether the employee simply works a shorter day. Government subsidies are available to small and medium-sized companies that introduce it.
Take-up is low. In the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's General Survey on Working Conditions, 6.9% of companies with 30 or more employees had a system in January 2025, up from 5.7% a year earlier. The government's karoshi prevention outline, revised in August 2024, sets a target of 15% by 2028. It is already one of the health measures an employer can choose under the Highly Professional System. A study group on reform of the Labour Standards Act has proposed stronger rules, including a possible obligation, but no bill had been passed by October 2026.
What it means for a foreign employer
- It is a cheap answer to time-zone working. Japan staff who take late-night calls with Europe or the United States and are back in the office early are your karoshi risk. An interval rule protects them and the company.
- It is a karoshi factor. Short rest between shifts is one of the burdens the authorities weigh when they assess whether illness was caused by work.
- Candidates see it as a signal. It is still rare enough in Japan that a written interval rule says something about the employer.
- Prepare for it becoming mandatory. Designing schedules with a rest period now is easier than retrofitting later.
Sources
- Act on Special Measures for Improvement of Working Hours Arrangements, Article 2, as amended (in force April 2019).
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, General Survey on Working Conditions 2025.
- Cabinet decision, Outline of Measures for the Prevention of Karoshi, 2 August 2024 (target for 2028).