{"id":83592,"date":"2026-09-01T07:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T07:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/83592\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T07:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T07:08:08","slug":"japan-relaxes-overtime-rules-under-workaholic-takaichi-unacceptable-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/83592\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan relaxes overtime rules under workaholic Takaichi: \u2018unacceptable shift\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japan<\/a> eased overtime regulation starting on Tuesday in a move meant to help spur economic growth but criticised as a relapse into the country\u2019s ingrained workaholic culture.The move comes after the government led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi<\/a> \u2013 a self-proclaimed workaholic \u2013 adopted a growth strategy in July, calling for revisions to the current oversight of work hours.<\/p>\n

The change in part reflects calls from certain business sectors for more flexible work styles as they grapple with a deepening labour shortage.<\/p>\n

Roughly 40 per cent of businesses in Japan are operating under specific labour-management agreements that legally allow monthly overtime of up to 100 hours, according to the labour ministry.<\/p>\n

But those companies were still advised by authorities to cap overtime at 45 hours each month, with that guidance considered on a par with regulation. That was because exceeding that threshold can increase risks for so-called karoshi, or deaths from overwork, a labour ministry official said.<\/p>\n

\"AA man sleeps on a chair inside a commercial building in Tokyo on Tuesday. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n

Under the new rule that took effect on Tuesday, labour standards inspection offices will no longer pressure businesses into the 45-hour cap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan eased overtime regulation starting on Tuesday in a move meant to help spur economic growth but criticised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22229,8,50848,22027,53215,53214,14406,2792,52,4262,53217,6872,53216],"class_list":["post-83592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-dentsu","tag-japan","tag-japan-chamber-of-commerce-and-industry","tag-karoshi","tag-labour-ministry","tag-national-confederation-of-trade-unions","tag-overtime","tag-prime-minister-sanae-takaichi","tag-tokyo","tag-tuesday","tag-work-hours","tag-work-life-balance","tag-zenroren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}