LABOR STANDARD LAW
April 1, 1947
Chapter VI. Women and Minor Workers
Site Ed: Below are the two chapters of the new Labor Standard Law which most affected the status of urban working women and children in Occupied Japan and immediately after. The law was the result of interaction among Japanese officials of the Ministry of Welfare; members of the U.S. Labor Commission to Japan, 1946; and staff officers in the Government Section and the Economic and Scientific Section serving in General MacArthur's Headquarters, Tokyo. Helen Mears, the sole woman member of the 1946 Commission, had previously visited Japan in 1935 and was critical of conditions in textile mills and dormitories, as reported in her book, Year of the Wild Boar (1942). Another American women on the scene in Occupied Japan was Gloria Stander, who had been recruited from the U.S. Department of Labor to serve as a wage analyst in ESS. She frequently gave lectures in Japan on the importance of improving working conditions for women and children as a test of democratization.
Article 56. (Minimum Age) Minors under full 16 years of age shall not be employed as workers. However, this does not apply to minors who are over full 14 years old and have completed the course of compulsory education prescribed by ordinance or the course equivalent to or higher than that.
Regardless of the provision of the preceding para¬graph, children above full 12 years old may be employed in certain occupation in enterprises which come under Article 8, item 6 to item 17 inclusive, in light labor which is not injurious to the health and welfare of the children, outside of the school hours of the children under the permission of administrative office. However children under full 12 years old may be employed in motion picture production and dramatic performance enterprise under same condition.
Article 57. (Certificate of Minors) The employee shall keep the census register which proves the age of the minors under full 18 years old at the working place Concerning the children who come under paragraph of the preceding Article, the employer shall keep certificate issued by school-master to prove that the employment does not hinder the schooling of the children, and the document to prove the consent of the parents or the guardian at the working place.
Article 58. (Labor Contracts of the Minor) The parent or the guardian shall not make a labor contract in place of the minors.
The parent or the guardian and the administrative office are authorized to cancel the contract for the future if they consider it unfair to the minor.
Article 59. The minor has the right to receive wages independently, the parent or the guardian shall not receive as proxy the wage earned by the minor.
Article 60. (Working Hours and Rest Days of Minors) Article 32, paragraph 2, Article 36 and Article 40 shall not apply to minors under full 18 years old.
Concerning the children who come under Article 56, paragraph 2, the working hours of Article 32, paragraph 1, are replaced as seven hours a day, forty-two hours a week, including school hours.
Regardless of the Article 32, paragraph 1, working hours for minors above full 15 years old (including minors above full 14 years old who come under the proviso of Article 56, paragraph 1) and under full 18 years old, may be extended to 10 hours a day, in case the employer reduces the working hour of one day in a week to 4 hours and the total working hours of a week does not exceed 48 hours.
Article 61. (Working Hours and Rest Days of Women) The employer shall not employ women above full 18 years old overtime more than 2 hours a day, 6 hours a week, and 150 hours a year, not employ them on rest days even though the employers reach the agreement under Article 36.
Article 62. (Midnight Labor) The employer shall not employ minors under full 18 years or women between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. However this shall not apply when the male over full 16 years of age is em¬ployed by rotating shift system.
When the competent Minister of Labor deems it necessary, he may change the hours of the preceding paragraph from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. specifying the area and the season.
When work is done in rotating shifts, the employer may employ these workers till 10:30 p.m. regardless of the provisions of the 1st paragraph or from 5:30 a.m. regardless of the stipulation of the preceding paragraph under the sanction of the administrative office.
The three foregoing paragraphs shall not apply when the employer extends the working hour by the stipulation of Article 33, and to those enterprises which come under items 6, 7, 13, 14 of Article 8 and to telephone. However, this shall not apply to minors under full 18 years old employed in the enterprise of item 14.
In applying paragraph 1 to children who come under Article 56, paragraph 2, principal clause, the hour of paragraph 1 is replaced as from 8p.m. to 5 a.m. and in applying paragraph 2 as from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Article 63. (Restrictions on Dangerous and Harmful Jobs) The employer shall not allow minors under full 18 years and women to engage in the dangerous jobs specified in Article 49, nor in jobs which require the conveyance of heavy weight goods specified by ordi¬nance.
The employer shall not employ minors under full 18 years of age in work involving the handling of poisons, powerful drugs or other injurious substances, or explosive, combustible or inflammable goods, or in work in places where dust and powder, or harmful gas and radial rays are generated, in places of high temperatures and pressures, or other places which are dangerous or injurious to the health and welfare of the minor.
The preceding paragraph may be applied by ordinance to women over full 18 years of age who are engaged in certain jobs specified in the same paragraph.
The scope of the work described in paragraph 2 and the scope of application by the preceding paragraph will be decided by the competent Minister.
Article 64. (Ban on Underground Labor) The employer shall not employ minors under full 18 years of age or women in underground labor.
Article 65. (Before and After Childbirth) The em¬ployer shall not employ a woman for 6 weeks before childbirth when she requests rest days during that period.
The employer shall not employ women within 6 weeks after childbirth. However, when the woman requests employment after 5 weeks, it is permissible to assign her to a job that doctor pronounces unharmful to her.
When the pregnant woman requires, the employer shall change her to a lighter job.
Article 66. (Nursing Period) When nursing a baby less than one year old the woman may obtain nursing time, twice a day, each thirty minutes during the working hours, besides the recess mentioned in Article 34.
The employer shall not work the woman during the nursing time mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
Article 67. (Menstruation Leave) The employer shall not keep working a woman who suffers heavily from menstruation nor women employed in jobs injurious to menstruation if she requests a menstruation leave.
The scope of the job mentioned in the preceding para¬graph will be determined by ordinance.
Article 68. (Fare for Returning Home) The employer shall bear the necessary fare in case minors under full 18 years of age or women wish to return home within 14 days after dismissal. However, this does not apply if minors under full 18 years of age of women were dismissed by reason for which they are responsible and if the employer receives authorization from the administrative office after explaining the grounds for dismissal.
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Chapter X. Dormitory
Article 94. (Autonomy of the Dormitory Life) The employer shall not infringe on the freedom of the private life of the workers in dormitory attached to the enterprise.
The employer shall not interfere in the selection of the dormitory leader, room leader, and other leaders necessary for the autonomy of the dormitory life.
Article 95. (Order of the Dormitory Life) The employer shall make a Rule of Dormitory attached to the working place covering the following items and submit it to administrative office. This is the same when he alters the Rule of Dormitory.
1. Matters pertaining to arising, retiring, leaving the premises, and staying out overnight.
2. Matters concerning daily functions.
3. Matters concerning meals.
4. Matters related to safety and health.
5. Matters concerning the management of buildings and equipment.
The employer must obtain the consent of the representative of the majority of the workers living in the dormitory concerning the matters which come under items 1 to 4 of the preceding paragraph.
The employer shall attach a document to prove the abovementioned consent when he submits it in accord with paragraph 1.
The employer and the workers who live in the dormitory must abide by the Rule of Dormitory.
Article 96. (Equipment, Safety and Sanitation of the Dormitory) Concerning the dormitory attached to enterprise, the employer must take necessary means for ventilation, lighting, heating, damp-proof, cleanliness, emergency, escape, maximum accommodations, sleeping facilities, and other things necessary for the prevention of accident, good morale and sanitation.
The standard of means to be taken by the employer in accordance with the preceding paragraph will be stipulated by ordinance.
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Reference
Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. Political reorientation of Japan, September 1945 to September 1948. Washington, U. S. Govt. Print. Off., 1949.
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