[Chapter 4] Section 2 Relevant Clauses in Laws, Ordinances and Safety and Health Regulations①

[Act] Industrial Safety and Health Act (Act No. 57, June 8, 1972) (Excerpt)

Article 1 (Purpose)

Article 1The purpose of this Act is to ensure workers’ safety and health in the workplace and to facilitate the creation of comfortable work environments, by advancing comprehensive and systematic measures related to industrial injury prevention, such as the taking of measures to establish standards for hazard prevention, clarifying accountability structures, and promoting autonomous action with a view to preventing industrial injuries, in conjunction with the Labor Standards Act (Act No. 49 of 1947).

Article 3 (Responsibilities of the Employer)
Note) Corporations and sole proprietors are called employers.

(1)Not only must an employer comply with the minimum standards for preventing industrial injuries provided for in this Act, but it must also work to ensure the safety and health of workers in the workplace through the creation of a comfortable work environment and the improvement of working conditions. Furthermore, an employer must work to cooperate with government-implemented policies for preventing industrial injuries.

(2)A person that designs, manufactures, or imports the machinery, tools, or other equipment; that manufactures or imports raw materials; or that constructs or designs constructions; must endeavor, in designing, manufacturing, importing or constructing them, to contribute to preventing the occurrence of industrial injuries caused by their use.

(3)A person, such as a party ordering construction work, that contracts out a job to another person must take care that it does not attach conditions, regarding things such as construction techniques and the construction period, that could impede the safe and healthy performance of the work.

Article 4

In addition to observing the necessary particulars to prevent industrial injuries, a worker must also endeavor to cooperate with measures to prevent industrial injuries that the employer and related parties implement.

Article 10 (General Safety and Health Managers)

(1)At each workplace of the scale specified by Cabinet Order, an employer, pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, must appoint a general safety and health manager and have that person direct the work of safety managers, health managers, and persons managing technical issues pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (2) of Article 25-2, as well as having that person engage in the overall management of the following operations:

(i)handling measures to prevent the endangerment of workers and the impairment of workers’ health;

(ii)handling the provision of education on the safety and health of workers;

(iii)handling the implementation of medical checkups and other measures to help maintain and improve workers’ health;

(iv)handling investigations into the causes of industrial injuries and the strategy for preventing recurrence;

(v)the necessary operations for preventing industrial injuries that Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare prescribes, beyond those set forth in each of the preceding items.

(2)The position of general safety and health manager must be filled by the person in charge of overall management for implementing the undertaking at the relevant workplace.

Article 12-2 (Safety and Health Advocates)

At a workplace, other than one as referred to in paragraph (1) of Article 11 and paragraph (1) of the preceding Article, that is of the scale specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, an employer must appoint a safety and health advocate (or a health advocate, for workplaces of a business type other than those specified by Cabinet Order as referred to in paragraph (1) of Article 11) and have that person take charge of the operations referred to in the items of paragraph (1) of Article 10 (excluding operations that constitute the measures referred to in any of the items of paragraph (1) of Article 25-2, if a person in charge of managing technical issues is appointed pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (2) of that Artirail a workplace of a business type other than those specific by Cabinet Order as referred to in Article 11, paragraph (1), this is limited to operations involving health).

Article 15 (General Safety and Health Supervisor)

(1)An employer that has contracted out to a contractor a part of the job involved in a business undertaking it carries out at a single site (if there are two or more such contractors due to there being two or more contracts for work under which that part of the job involved in the undertaking is contracted out, this means the orderer under the earliest of those contracts; hereinafter referred to as the “principal employer”), and that has a business undertaking categorized as the construction industry or in any other industry specified by Cabinet Order (hereinafter referred to as a “specified undertaking”) (hereinafter such an employer is referred to as a “specified principal employer”) must appoint a general health and safety supervisor and have that person give directions to the principal safety and health manager, as well as having that person handle the overall management of the things referred to in the items of Article 30, paragraph (1), if both its workers and the workers of the contractor (and of all subcontractors, if the job involved in the undertaking of the principal employer is carried out based on multiple levels of contracts; hereinafter referred to as “related contractors”) work at that site, in order to prevent industrial injuries from occurring as a result of those workers’ work being carried out at the same site; provided, however, that this does not apply if the number of workers is less than the number specified by Cabinet Order.

Article 16 (Safety and Health Supervisors)
*Construction and shipbuilding industries

(1)In a case as referred to in paragraph (1) or (3) of Article 15, a contractor that does not constitute an employer required to appoint a general safety and health supervisor pursuant to those provisions and that carries out the relevant job itself must appoint a safety and health supervisor and have that person communicate with the general safety and health supervisor and undertake the other things that are specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

(2)A contractor that has appointed a safety and health supervisor pursuant to the provisions of the preceding paragraph must inform the employer referred to in that paragraph of this without delay.

Article 20 (Measures to Be Taken by Employers)

An employer must take the necessary measures to prevent the following dangers:

(i)dangers due to machinery, tools, or any other such equipment (hereinafter referred to as “machinery or other such equipment”);

(ii)dangers due to substances of an explosive nature, substances of a combustible nature, and substances of an inflammable nature;

(iii)dangers due to electricity, heat, and other energy.

Article 21

(1)An employer must take the necessary measures to prevent dangers arising from work methods involved in operations such as excavation, quarrying, cargo handling, or logging.

(2)An employer must take the necessary measures to prevent dangers related to places from which workers could fall or when there are concerns about landslides.

Article 22

An employer must take the necessary measures to prevent the following health impairments:

(i)health impairments due to things such as raw materials, gases, vapors, dusts, insufficient oxygen in the air, and pathogens;

(ii)health impairments due to things such as radiation, high temperatures, low temperatures, ultrasonic waves, noises, vibration, abnormal atmospheric pressures;

(iii)health impairments due to operations such as gauge monitoring, precision work, etc.;

(iv)health impairments due to exhaust fumes, waste fluids, or solid wastes.

Article 23

As regards the constructions and other workspaces where workers are engaged in work, an employer must take the necessary measures for the maintenance of passages, floor and stair areas and the necessary measures for ventilation, lighting, illumination, heating, damp-proofing, rest, evacuation and sanitation, or other measures required to maintain the health, moral, order and lives of workers

Article 24

An employer must take the necessary measures to prevent industrial injuries from arising out of the work activities of workers.

Article 25

If there is an imminent danger of an industrial injury occurring, an employer must immediately stop operations and take the necessary measures to have the workers evacuate from the workspace

Article 25-2

An employer that carries out a job as specified by Cabinet Orders involved in business undertaking categorized as the construction industry or in any other industry specified by Cabinet Order must take the following measures in order to prevent an industrial injury from occurring in the event that measures for rescuing and protecting workers are taken in association with the occurrence of something such as an explosion or fire:

(i)installation and management of the necessary machinery or other such equipment to rescue and protect workers.

(ii)training in the necessary things related to the rescue and protection of workers.

(iii)In addition to what is listed in the preceding two items, to carry out necessary matters concerning the relief and protection of workers in preparation for explosion, fire, etc.

Article 26

Workers must observe the necessary rules in response to the measures taken under the provisions of Articles 20 through 25 and of paragraph (1) of the preceding Article that the employer takes.

Article 59 (Safety and Health Education)

(1)Having begun to employ a new worker, the employer must educate that worker in safety or health as it relates to the operations in which the worker is to be engaged, pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

(2)The provisions of the preceding paragraph apply mutatis mutandis if the substance of the worker’s work has changed.

(3)Before assigning a worker to dangerous or hazardous operations specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, an employer must educate that worker in safety or health as it relates to the operations, pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

Article 60 (Foremen Education)

If the type of industry at an employer’s workplace falls under the category specified by Cabinet Order, the employer must conduct safety or health education regarding the following particulars, pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, for foremen newly taking on that role and other persons newly taking on a role directly guiding or supervising workers in operations (except operations supervisors):

(i)things related to decisions on work methods and the assignment of workers;

(ii)things related to the method of guiding or supervising workers;

(iii)the necessary particulars for preventing industrial injuries that Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare prescribes, beyond what is set forth in the preceding two items.

Article 60-2

(1)Beyond what is provided for in the preceding two Articles, an employer must endeavor to educate persons currently engaged in dangerous or hazardous work operations in safety or health as it relates to the operations in which they are engaged, in order to improve the level of safety and health at the workplace.

(2)The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare is to release the necessary guidelines to ensure the appropriate and effective implementation of the education referred to in the preceding paragraph.

(3)The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare may provide the necessary guidance to employers and associations thereof in accordance with the guidelines referred to in the preceding paragraph.