Employment Law Consultation

Economic and business globalization, high wages in Japan and entry into growing markets among other reasons spur Japanese companies to enter and operate in foreign markets. On the other hand, many foreign companies establish presence in Japan through acquisition, incorporation, or establishing a branch within Japan.
From Japan to overseas and overseas to Japan, frequent international movements of employees raise difficult issues. Globalization is also impacting the minds of employees as labor disputes are on an upward trend.
Grant Thornton Japan provides employment law consultation to assist businesses develop and deploy their human resource in compliance with employment laws.

Employment Contract & Rules of Employment

The Employment Contract Law encourages the preparation and exchange of an employment contract. Under the life-time employment practice of post-War Japan, it was customary to communicate the terms and conditions of employment via a sheet of paper, if at all, with references to an Employee Handbook. It was rare to exchange employment contracts. Employee Handbook, however, are often not accessible until formally hired and there exists the potential risk of future disagreements on the terms and conditions of employment.
The Law also adheres to a Japanese Supreme Court decision whereby the burden of proof on objectivity and reasonableness of terminating an employee lies with the employer. Therefore, listing grounds for termination in a company’s Employee Handbook plays an important part.
Grant Thornton Japan incorporates the culture and uniqueness of day-to-day practices of a company in preparing employment contracts and Employee Handbook, both in English and Japanese, in compliance with employment laws. We also assist responsible personnel overseas understand Japanese employment laws.

Compliance related to Foreign Nationals

Employers with ten or more foreign employees are encouraged to assign, internally or externally, personnel responsible for the management of education, training, employee benefits and other human resource issues of foreign nationals.
In order to build a comfortable working environment for foreign nationals, management of various filings, explanation of enrolments into and benefits of social security programs and in some cases on tax issues are critical.
Engaging an experienced professional to explain the Japanese social security programs and related costs to responsible personnel overseas will also prove effective.

Secondment to Overseas

Secondment and transfers, especially cross border assignments, involve tax and other employment complication. Yet, there is no set of laws to address human resource management in this field. Employers are given wide discretion within the bounds of general employment laws.
Hence, preparation of secondment agreements in a common language and the execution thereof becomes critical for human resource policies on secondments and transfers to function properly.
Grant Thornton Japan does not stop at preparing secondment agreements but goes beyond to provide tax consultation on compensation structures and packages of seconded employees.