Page 280 - วารสารกฎหมาย ศาลอุทธรณ์คดีชํานัญพิเศษ

วารสารกฎหมาย ศาลอุทธรณ์คดีชำานัญพิเศษ

II. Impact of COVID-19 on Working Conditions

Japan has undertaken a number of measures after the outbreak of the COVID-19
crisis in 2020. The spread of COVID-19 and stay-home requests have forced many

employers to change their work organizations. Following the declaration of a national
state of emergency on April 7, the government has encouraged companies to consider
teleworking, staggered working hours, and other flextime work arrangements.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) issued a Telework Model Work
Regulation for companies to follow. As a measure to alleviate the difficulties caused
1
by the pandemics, the MHLW has also introduced an expanded Employment Adjustment

Subsidy («EAS») for businesses forced to reduce operations during the pandemic.
3
2
As a special measure effective from April 1 to December 31, the MHLW undertook to
subsidize maximum 100% of leave allowance for SMEs and maximum 80% leave

allowance for large enterprises.

Most of the governmental measures against COVID-19 are recommendations
without legally binding effect. In Japan, however, a company would be expected to
comply with recommendations issued by the government, if reasonably possible.

In fact, the rules of employment of each employer are more relevant in this situation.

Remote working, which includes teleworking from home and mobile work were
adopted at various success rate. The useful source of information on the impact of the
pandemics on the labor market in Japan can be found in the surveys conducted by

the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training (JILPT) The surveys show that
.4
a large number of companies have been making various employment adjustments,
as the number of employees on temporary leave had significantly increased, and overtime

work was significantly reduced.

1 https://telework.mhlw.go.jp/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/TWmodel.pdf (in Japanese).
2 In Japanese: 雇用調整助成金 (Kyochosei Joseikin).
3 https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/koyou_roudou/roudoukijun/jikan/telework_10026.
html (in Japanese).
4 These surveys are entitled: “Survey on the Impact that Spreading Novel Coronavirus Infection has on
Work and Daily Life”: https://www.jil.go.jp/english/special/covid-19/survey/documents/20200826.pdf

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