Paid leaves rule in Japan

Employers must grant 10 days’ paid leave to employees that worked for six consecutive months from the time of hiring and who worked on not less than 80 per cent of all schedule work days. This paid leave may be taken consecutively or separately. Where an employee’s application to take paid leave will hinder the normal business operations, the employer may require the employee to take such paid leave at a different time. The right to annual paid leave expires after two years. In other words, annual paid leave left over from one year may be carried over and taken the next year only. Most Japanese companies grant a few additional paid leave to employees for marriage, death of close relatives, and childbirth by the employee’s spouse, etc.. In addition, employers must have all regular employees undergo a health check-up by a doctor once per year (or at least once every six months in the case of employees engaged in specific kinds of work which may damage the employees’ health including late night work and work involving X-rays).