Japan Upper House Begins Debate on Work Style Reform Bill

June 4, 2018

Tokyo- The House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, started deliberations on a controversial work style reform bill at a plenary meeting on Monday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe regards the bill, which cleared the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, last week as the most important legislation in the ongoing regular Diet session.

Major opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, are seeking to scrap the bill. But it is expected to be enacted during the current session as the ruling camp, led by Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, plans to extend the session, which is currently set to end on June 20.

A major item in the bill is the introduction of overtime restrictions, including a monthly cap of 100 hours, with employers violating the rules facing penalties.

It also includes the launch of a system to exclude high-paid highly skilled professionals from work hour regulations.

"By enacting this bill, we'd like to correct the practice of long work hours in our country and help people achieve a better work-life balance," Abe told the Upper House plenary meeting.

There are concerns that the proposed system to exempt highly skilled specialists from work hour regulations may encourage long work hours and cause health problems.

In response to such concerns, Abe said, "We'll oblige employers to keep tabs on employees' work hours and make sure they take certain days off."

The prime minister apologized again for the government's use of improper work hour data for drawing up the bill and pledged to take steps to prevent similar errors. Jiji Press