Paper short abstract:

Prime Minister Abe's government says it wants to limit work hours to counter the social and personal ills they cause. Opposition parties and others have proposed regulatory remedies. But business interests, who want further deregulation of work hours, dominate the committee discussing work reforms.

Paper long abstract:

Since 1988, more than 30,000 applications for workers' compensation have been filed in Japan for deaths and disabilities caused by overwork; nearly 40% have been approved. These claims represent the tip of the overwork iceberg. The 2014 passage of the Karoshi Prevention Countermeasures Promotion Law (過労死等防止対策推進法) represents government recognition of labor activists' repeatedly demonstrated view that long (often uncompensated) work hours damage individual health, lower productivity, and contribute to social inequality by inhibiting female labor force participation and career development. The 2014 law makes government responsible for the karoshi problem. What, then, are the prospects that it will enact labor law reforms to reduce or cap the length of the working day? Publicly available documentary evidence of deliberations in the Committee for Realizing Reform of the Japanese Way of Work shows how absence of opposition allows the government to strike a liberal pose, although its positions are almost as neoliberal as those of business. Under Abenomics, Japan cut corporate taxes and pursued other ends that dovetail with business community desires. Concerning work hours, the Committee's agenda includes reintroducing a failed 2006 plan to end overtime pay for the majority of white-collar workers. However, this time it will be aimed (initially) only at relatively high-income "professionals." Instead of a uniform cap, work hours negotiated on an enterprise basis, as well as increased use of self-discretionary and flexible work hours practices, and expanded exemptions from overtime regulations are being discussed. Labor representatives are a distinct minority on the Committee. Moreover, Japan's unions prioritize members' job security over work hours concerns. Although opposition parties and the Japan Labor Lawyers Association argue cogently that fines and criminal penalties for overwork are necessary to combat karoshi, the government faces minimal electoral pressure to back opposition proposals to limit work hours, such as the "interval system" in use in the EU. Consequently work hours "reform" will likely strengthen the legislative basis for Japanese management's customary authority over the length of the working day.