What should you do if you find defamatory posts about your company online?

 

◆ Consultations regarding illegal and harmful information remain at a high level

  According to a report compiled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on illegal and harmful information on the internet, the number of consultations received by the Illegal and Harmful Information Consultation Center in fiscal year 2024 was 6,403, continuing the trend of remaining at a high level following the 6,463 cases in fiscal year 2023.

  In terms of the demographics of those seeking advice, 85.2% were “individuals,” 8.2% were “sole proprietors,” and 5.7% were “companies or organizations,” with individuals accounting for the overwhelming majority.

 ◆ Key Points to Keep in Mind Regarding Measures Against Customer Harassment

  Meanwhile, starting this October, companies will be required to implement measures against customer harassment.

 The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s “Corporate Manual for Countermeasures Against Customer Harassment” cites requests for removal to website operators and requests for disclosure of the sender’s information as examples of how to respond to “defamatory harassment on social media and the internet.” Therefore, it is advisable to familiarize yourself with these procedures in case your company becomes a victim of defamation or has information posted that infringes on privacy.

 ◆Ministry of Justice Publishes Guidelines

  The “Guide to Requesting the Removal of Defamatory Posts on the Internet,” published by the Ministry of Justice on April 15, outlines the procedures for submitting removal requests directly to major providers and server administrators—such as Google, LINE Yahoo, and Meta (which operates Instagram and Facebook)—for each specific service.The guide explains which fields to click on the “removal request form” and which checkboxes to select, and it also includes email templates for removal requests.

 It is recommended that you download and save this guide.

 [Reference]

 "Guide to Requesting the Removal of Defamatory Posts on the Internet"

 https://www.moj.go.jp/JINKEN/jinken88.html

Reasons for Early Resignation Among Young Employees and Tips for Labor Management

 

  Early resignation among new graduates and young employees has become a major challenge for companies. Based on the results of the “Survey on Skill Development and Retention of Young Workers” conducted by the Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training (JILPT), we explore the “reasons why new graduates leave their first full-time employer” and offer tips for labor management.

Trends in Reasons for Resignation

  The survey was conducted for the first time in 2016, the second time in 2019, and the third time in 2025; the target age groups and questionnaire items did not strictly align across all three surveys.

  However, looking at the responses from all employees who left their jobs in the second and third surveys, “working hours, holidays, and leave,” “wage conditions,” “deterioration of health,” and “interpersonal relationships” ranked high for both men and women, suggesting that these are universal reasons for leaving.

  Furthermore, among young people who left their jobs within one year of employment, the most prominent reasons for leaving for both men and women were “deterioration of health,” “interpersonal relationships,” and “loss of confidence,” confirming that adapting to the workplace and job immediately after joining is crucial for retention.

  On the other hand, among those with over five years of service, the top reasons for leaving were “career advancement,” “finding a job that meets desired conditions,” and “marriage, childbirth, or child-rearing,” indicating an increase in positive reasons for leaving.

Tips for Labor Management

  In the third survey, anticipating that young people’s retention rates are significantly influenced by whether they have someone to consult with regarding work-related concerns, the survey analyzed their consultation patterns.

  The findings indicate that young people who left their jobs early tended to do so without seeking advice even when they had concerns, and it was also noted that those who left tended to have less workplace communication compared to those who remained.

   The study concludes that to prevent unwanted early resignations and promote workplace retention, it is important to establish “a place where anyone can seek advice immediately after joining the company” outside the workplace.

The Child and Childcare Support Contribution System

The introduction of the Child and Childcare Support Contribution System stems from Japan’s declining birthrate and population decline.

If this situation persists and the birthrate continues to decline, it will lead to problems such as a shrinking workforce, increased burdens on the working-age population within the social security system, a decline in economic and regional vitality, impacts on living standards and the healthy development of children, and the acceleration of population aging.

Therefore, with the aim of promoting further measures to address the declining birthrate and securing stable funding, the government will introduce the Child and Childcare Support Contribution System in April 2026 and implement it in phases through 2028.

Further Stabilization of Funding for Measures to Address the Declining Birthrate

The government has previously promoted a system known as the “Child and Child-rearing Contribution.” This contribution is intended to secure funding for expanding the Child Allowance and supporting initiatives that help balance work and family life.

However, since the funding for the Child and Child-rearing Contribution is limited to the employer’s portion of Pension Insurance premiums, and the use of the collected funds is restricted to expanding the Child Allowance and similar measures, it has not resulted in truly effective measures to address the declining birthrate.

Therefore, recognizing that children and families raising children should be supported by society as a whole, and to secure a more stable source of funding for measures to address the declining birthrate, the government decided to collect small contributions from all generations of citizens enrolled in public health insurance.

Under the Child and Childcare Support Contribution System, contributions will be collected from all generations enrolled in public health insurance from fiscal year 2026 through fiscal year 2028.

The amount of the contribution under the Child and Childcare Support Contribution System varies depending on the type of public health insurance you are enrolled in and your income.

For reference, the contribution rates for the Japan Health Insurance Association’s Child and Childcare Support Contribution are as follows:

Starting with the April 2026 installment (paid in May), 0.23% (0.115% paid by the employer, 0.115% paid by the insured)

Scandinavian Airlines Case ----- Tokyo District Court Decision on April 13, 1995

 

Summary

Employees of a foreign airline company sought a provisional disposition for preservation of their position and provisional payment of wages on the grounds that their dismissal was invalid because they were dismissed due to rationalization such as business restructuring and downsizing at the Japanese branch of the airline.

The company offered to rehire some of the employees after giving them early retirement and changing their working conditions, such as the type of work specified in their labor contracts, but the employees refused the offer and were dismissed.

Point of Decision

Criteria for Determining the Validity of Dismissal by Notice of Termination with Changes.

Judgment

A framework for judgment separate from the doctrine of abuse of dismissal.

Reason

The company's notice of intent to dismiss is a notice of termination in order to change the working conditions specified in the labor contract, in other words, it is a termination of the existing labor contract with an offer to enter into a new contract, which is called a "notice of termination with changes”.

About notice of termination with changes,

 -The change in the working conditions of the workers is indispensable for the operation of the company's business.

 -The necessity of the change exceeds the disadvantages that the worker will suffer from the change in working conditions, and the offer to enter into a new contract with a change in working conditions is deemed compelling enough to justify dismissal if the worker does not accept the offer.

 -And the company has made sufficient efforts to avoid dismissal.

 Based on the above three points, it is reasonable to conclude that the company can dismiss a worker who does not respond to the offer to enter into a new contract.

⇒Considering the company's business situation in this case, the degree of disadvantage suffered by the worker, and the circumstances leading up to the dispute, the notice of termination with changes in this case satisfies the above requirements, and the dismissal in this case is valid.

Please note that the court case listed here is individual case and may be judged differently depending on the case.

Court Decisions on Dismissal _Singapore Development Bank Case, Osaka District Court, June 23, 2000

◆Tendency of judgments on location limitation and the doctrine of dismissal for reorganization

The effect of the limited work location on the decision of the law of dismissal for the purpose of reorganization is small, and it tends to be the case that reassignment is often requested as an effort to avoid dismissal.

◆Summary

A number of employees involved in remittance and foreign exchange export operations at a foreign-affiliated company were terminated following the closure of their Osaka branch. They argued that the dismissal did not meet the four requirements for a valid restructuring dismissal, that it constituted an abuse of the right to dismiss, and that it was therefore invalid. They sought confirmation of their status as employees with rights under their labor contracts, along with payment of wages, interest on delayed payment, and compensation for pain and suffering.

◆Points of Judgment

Whether efforts were made to avoid dismissal and whether the selection of dismissed employees was reasonable.

◆Judgment

The dismissal was judged to be valid because the other requirements for dismissal by liquidation were also satisfied.

◆Reason

The workers in question were found to be limited to the Osaka branch where they were hired. The limitation of the place of employment gives the workers the benefit of not being transferred without their consent, but does not give the employer the benefit of not having them transferred. Therefore, the target of personnel reduction is not automatically determined to be the employees of the branch to be closed.

⇒ For employees of branches scheduled to close, the possibility of avoiding layoff depends on whether they can be reassigned to other branches, given the unavoidable nature of the closure. 

◆Possibility of transfer

-It cannot be said that it was unfair that the Tokyo Branch did not solicit voluntary retirement in order to transfer the said workers to the other branch.

-The company's decision to transfer the workers to the Tokyo branch office, where there are no vacancies, is not reasonable because it would mean that employees who are skilled in the work at the Tokyo branch office would be forced to resign, and then the workers would be put in charge of work that they are not skilled in, depending on the nature of the work.

 ⇒ In light of the above, it cannot be said that the company lacked efforts to avoid dismissal, and it is unavoidable that the employees of the Osaka branch would be subject to dismissal if they cannot be transferred.

Apply for change of status of residence from "College Student" to "Work" as soon as possible!

 ◆Immigration Service Agency appeals

 For companies planning to hire foreign students from next April, it is recommended to apply for change of status of residence as early as possible. The Immigration Service Agency is calling for applications to be submitted between December 1 and the end of January, as applications by foreign students who plan to join a company in April are concentrated between January and March every year, and there is a possibility that the screening process will not be completed by the desired date if there are insufficient or late documents submitted. Before applying, please refer to the list of documents to be submitted on the Immigration Service  Agency's website and carefully check that all the necessary documents are in order. Insufficient documents may delay the date of the result and affect the procedure for joining the company.

◆New cases where required documents can be omitted

 From December 1, 2025, when applying for permission to change status of residence from "College Student" to "Engineer/Humanities/International Services" or "Research," it will be possible to omit some of the required documents if any of the following apply (temporary employment is not applicable). It is advisable to confirm whether or not you are eligible before submitting the application.

 1) Graduates (or prospective graduates) of Japanese universities (including graduates of graduate and junior colleges)

 2) Graduates of excellent universities abroad: Foreign universities ranked in the top 300 in two or more of the three world university rankings are eligible.

 3) When working at an institution that currently accepts individuals who have received permission to change their status of residence from “Student” to a work-eligible status: This applies when a foreign national holding the desired status of residence (limited to those who have received permission to change from the “Student” status) is currently employed by the institution and has received at least one extension of stay while working at that institution.

The Immigration Service Agency

To those who are planning to apply for a change of status from "College Student" to "Worker" 

https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/10_00240.html

One Year after the Enforcement of the Freelance Law, Current Status of Guidance on Violations

 

◆445 cases of violations

November 1 marked one year since the enforcement of the Freelance Business Transactions Law (hereinafter referred to as the "Freelance Law"), and the Fair Trade Commission, Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, and Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, which are the ministries and agencies under the jurisdiction of the Law, announced the results of a survey (November 2024 to September 2025) conducted among 30,000 ordering businesses regarding their transactions with freelance workers. The results of the survey are now publicly available.

According to the results, the Fair Trade Commission issued 4 "recommendations" and 441 "instructions" for violations of the Freelance Law. The recommendations were made to major publishing companies, music schools, and others for violations of Article 3, Paragraph 1 (obligation to clearly state business terms), Article 4, Paragraph 5 (obligation to pay remuneration on time), and Article 5, Paragraph 2, Item 1 (prohibition of requests to provide unfair economic benefits) of the Act.

In addition, in March of this year, the Committee intensively investigated businesses in the game software industry, animation production work, and relaxation industry, and instructed 45 companies to correct the descriptions in contracts and purchase orders, the method of placing orders, and the method of setting payment due dates.

 ◆Attention should also be paid to anti-harassment measures and recruitment.

According to prefectural labor bureaus, there have been many cases of guidance, etc. concerning violations of the obligation to establish a system for anti-harassment measures (Article 14 of the Freelance Law) and the obligation to accurately display recruitment information (Article 14 of the same law).

The ordering business must take measures such as establishing a system for consultation to prevent harassment from harming the working environment of freelancers.

When recruiting freelancers through advertisements, etc., the information must not be false or misleading, and must be kept accurate and up-to-date.

When outsourcing work to freelancers, it is necessary to reconfirm the items regulated by the Freelance Law.

Record of the regular press conference of the Director-General dated November 5, 2025, Fair Trade Commission of Japan.
https://www.jftc.go.jp/houdou/teirei/2025/251105.html

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare "One year has passed since the enforcement of the Act on the Proper Treatment of Transactions between Freelancers and Business Operators!
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/bunya/freelance_00006.html