Abe's '45-Hour Monthly Overtime' Limit Lifted by Takaichi [Mwonil Issyu]

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to Ease “45-Hour Monthly Limit” Next Month
Companies With Special Provisions May Allow Up to 100 Hours of Overtime per Month
In Japan, “Boost for Productivity” vs. “A Setback for Labor Policy”

The Japanese government will ease its guidelines restricting overtime work to "within 45 hours per month" starting next month. If employers and employees agree on special provisions, overtime work of up to less than 100 hours per month will be permitted. There is considerable debate on this issue within Japan. In particular, attention is being drawn to the fact that the person who originally enacted the overtime limitation in law was former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe—who was considered a mentor by current Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

On the 19th, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced updated overtime guidelines. Previously, the Labour Standards Inspection Offices under the ministry advised even companies legally allowed to permit up to 100 hours of overtime per month to actually keep overtime to within 45 hours per month. Starting next month, these guidelines will be completely re-examined.

According to the existing Japanese Labor Standards Act, the maximum working hours are set at 8 hours per day, 40 hours per week. If labor and management agree to a so-called “36 Agreement” (Saburoku Kyotei), overtime of up to 45 hours per month was allowed. With the addition of “special provisions,” overtime— including work on holidays—could reach the statutory limit of less than 100 hours per month.

In 2024, Sanae Takaichi, then Minister in charge of Economic Security, is speaking at the "Association for Inheriting the Will of Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe." Official website of Sanae Takaichi.

However, the Labour Standards Inspection Offices have instructed all companies that signed special provisions to reduce overtime exceeding 45 hours. The rationale was concern that longer working hours adversely affect workers' health. This led to complaints from the business community, who argued that if special provisions have been established, there should be no need to restrict working hours.

With this new announcement, the previous “everyone must keep to 45 hours” restriction on working hours will be eliminated. The Labour Standards Inspection Offices will instead focus on checking whether these companies are properly managing the health of their employees.

Why did the Japanese government make this decision? The answer lies in the labor hour deregulation policy being pushed by the Liberal Democratic Party, including Prime Minister Takaichi. The Liberal Democratic Party has long argued that the upper limit on overtime prevents those who want to work more from doing so. During last summer’s House of Councillors election, they pledged a policy called “Work as You Wish Reform (Hatarakitai Kaikaku).” This term deliberately tweaks just one character from former Prime Minister Abe’s “Work Style Reform (Hatarakikata Kaikaku),” which was the legislative basis for capping overtime hours. The policy intention is to revise regulations so that those desiring to work more hours may do so.

But do Japanese workers really want to work longer hours? The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare conducted a survey to inform this policy revision, and the results tell a different story.

According to the Asahi Shimbun, a survey of 3,000 workers conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in October last year showed only 10.5% wanted to increase their working hours. 59.5% said the current level was satisfactory, and 30% actually wanted to reduce their working hours. When asked what they considered an appropriate upper limit for monthly overtime, 93% answered “45 hours or less.” Only 0.5% said they wanted to work more than 80 hours—the so-called “karoshi (death by overwork) line.”

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attended the memorial service for the war dead held on August 15, Korea's Liberation Day and Japan's defeat anniversary. Tokyo, Japan - Kyodo News.

Of course, there are workers who do wish to work longer. When asked why, 41.6% answered “to earn more money,” and 15.6% said “without overtime pay, it is hard to make a living.” This shows that the issue of working hours is not simply about whether people want to work more or not—it is closely tied to livelihood concerns.

There is another reason why this decision is drawing increased attention. The labor law that Prime Minister Takaichi is now seeking to reform is in fact a policy initiative of her political mentor, former Prime Minister Abe. In 2015, under Prime Minister Abe’s administration, a woman in her 20s working at Dentsu, a major advertising agency, died due to overwork. The incident was acknowledged as an industrial accident caused by overwork, leading to a public outcry for reform of Japan’s long-hours working culture. This prompted the push for reform, and in 2018 a legal upper limit was introduced for overtime work.

Now, however, the tide appears to be turning toward easing these restrictions again. The left-leaning Tokyo Shimbun has criticized this move, asking whether it is not reversing the achievements of her mentor, former Prime Minister Abe.

Japan’s labor policy is thus shifting from “Work Style Reform" to “Work as You Wish Reform” after eight years. It remains to be seen whether, as Prime Minister Takaichi hopes, this will become a silver bullet boosting productivity—or if it will simply turn back the clock on Japan’s hard-won progress in reducing excessive overtime.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.