40-Hour Work Week to Improve Health Proposed in Japan

Japan should gradually lower the legal limit on weekly working hours from 48 to 40 to help improve workers’ health and welfare, an advisory panel proposed Wednesday.

A Labor Ministry official said that such a change would be the first major revision in the Labor Standards Law since its establishment in 1947.

The official said the panel called for lowering the limit on the work week to 46 hours initially, then to 44 hours “at the earliest possible time” and ultimately to 40 hours.

He said the ministry is preparing a bill for presentation at the next regular Parliament session in March to start a 46-hour limit April 1, 1988.

Under the bill, employers would be banned from requiring workers to put in more than 46 hours a week unless the workers agree. The maximum penalty for violators would be six months in prison.

A survey conducted by the ministry in April and May showed that 59.6% of Japan’s 40 million workers are with firms that have a work week of 46 hours or less.

Another ministry survey showed that the Japanese worked an average 2,152 hours a year in 1983, compared with 1,898 hours by Americans, 1,938 hours by British, 1,613 hours by West Germans and 1,657 hours by the French, the official said.