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Japan Overtime Rules: The 8-Hour Day, the 25% and 50% Premiums, and the 36 Agreement (2026)

13 min read

Japan Overtime Rules: The 8-Hour Day, the 25% and 50% Premiums, and the 36 Agreement (2026)

The short answer: Japan's Labor Standards Act sets statutory working hours at 8 a day and 40 a week. Every hour past either line is overtime and earns at least a 25% premium. Work between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. earns another 25%, work on the weekly statutory day off earns 35%, and once overtime passes 60 hours in a calendar month, every hour beyond that earns 50%, a rule that has applied to small and medium employers, not just large ones, since 1 April 2023. None of that overtime is legal at all unless the employer has signed and filed a 36 Agreement with the workforce, and even with one the ordinary ceiling is 45 hours a month and 360 a year. Behind every one of those lines is a duty to measure each worker's hours by an objective method and keep the record. Punch is that method, one punch at a time.

Readers of our Singapore, Philippines and Germany guides will find Japan the most layered of the four: a modest base premium, stacked supplements for the hours that fall at night or on a day off, a monthly counter that changes the rate, and caps that carry criminal penalties. Here is how it works for a small crew.

The 8-Hour Day and the 40-Hour Week

Article 32 of the Labor Standards Act draws two lines: 8 hours a day, breaks excluded, and 40 hours a week. Cross either one and the hour is statutory overtime. A worker on five 9-hour days has 5 overtime hours by the daily rule. A worker on six 7-hour days has 2 overtime hours by the weekly rule, with no single day over 8.

Two things set Japan apart from the FLSA-style week most of our readers know:

  • Both lines count, independently. The daily rule does not switch off because the week is short, and the weekly rule does not switch off because every day stayed at 8. Each hour is tested against both.
  • The counting is continuous across the month. Japan adds a third line that no FLSA state has: a running total of overtime hours in the calendar month, which changes the rate at 60 (below).

A shop, restaurant, inn, clinic or cinema with fewer than 10 workers has a special 44-hour week under Article 40 and its ordinance; the daily line stays at 8. Construction, manufacturing, transport and everyone else are at 40.

The 36 Agreement: No Overtime Without One

This is the rule small employers from outside Japan miss. Under Article 36, an employer may only ask for hours past 8 a day or 40 a week, or work on the statutory day off, after concluding a written agreement with the majority union or, where there is none, a representative chosen by a majority of the workers, and filing it with the Labor Standards Inspection Office. Everyone calls it the 36 Agreement (saburoku kyōtei). Without one on file, the first overtime hour is a violation, however well it is paid.

The agreement sets its own limits, and since the Work Style Reform amendments those limits are capped by statute:

  • Ordinary cap: 45 hours a month and 360 hours a year of overtime.
  • Special clause (tokubetsu jōkō), for temporary and exceptional spikes: up to 720 hours a year of overtime, with no month over 100 hours of overtime plus holiday work combined, an average of 80 hours or less across any 2-to-6-month window, and no more than 6 months a year above 45 hours.

Breaking the caps is a criminal offence under Article 119: up to six months' imprisonment or a fine of up to ¥300,000. In August 2026 the government eased the blanket administrative guidance that had pushed every special-clause employer back toward 45 hours a month. The statutory caps did not move. They are enforced against a monthly and annual hours count per worker, which is exactly the count a good punch record produces without anyone doing the arithmetic.

The Premiums: 25%, 25%, 35%, and 50%

Article 37 sets the minimum supplements. Collective agreements and work rules can pay more; nothing can pay less.

| Hours | Premium | Multiplier | |---|---|---| | Past 8 a day or 40 a week | 25% | 1.25x | | Between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. (late-night work) | +25% | added to whatever else applies | | On the weekly statutory day off | 35% | 1.35x | | Overtime past 60 hours in a calendar month | 50% | 1.50x |

The supplements stack. Overtime that runs past 10 p.m. earns 25% for the overtime plus 25% for the hour of night: 1.50x. Holiday work at night is 1.60x. The 61st overtime hour of the month worked after 10 p.m. is 1.75x. A fixed "overtime allowance" folded into the salary only satisfies this if the work rules state how many hours it covers and at what rate, and every hour beyond that number is still owed at the premium.

The 60-hour rule is the 2023 change. Large employers have paid 50% past 60 monthly overtime hours since 2010. Small and medium employers had a moratorium, and it ended on 1 April 2023. Every employer in Japan now pays it. An employer may, with a separate written agreement, offer paid leave in place of the extra 25 points (the part above the ordinary 25%), but the base 25% is always paid in money. Watch the counter: a crew that runs 15 overtime hours a week is at 60 by the end of the fourth week, and the rate steps up mid-period.

The base is the ordinary hourly wage. For a monthly salary, the hourly figure is the monthly pay divided by the average monthly scheduled hours. Allowances for family, commuting, housing and the like are excluded by regulation; most other allowances are in. A premium calculated on a stripped-down base is underpaid.

Breaks and the Day Off

Two rules sit under the hours limit, and both are checked against the punch times rather than the schedule:

  • Breaks, Article 34: at least 45 minutes once the working day passes 6 hours, and at least 60 minutes once it passes 8. The break must fall inside the working hours, be given to everyone at the same time unless a written labor-management agreement says otherwise, and be the worker's own time. Standby at the counter or the phone is not a break; it is working time, and it counts toward the 8.
  • The statutory day off, Article 35: at least one day a week, or four across any four-week period. Work on that day is "holiday work" at 35%. A second weekly day off, the Saturday most offices give, is a contractual day off, and work on it is ordinary overtime at 25% once the 40-hour week is crossed, not holiday work.

Paying the premium does not waive the break. An employee who worked 9 hours straight for 1.25x on the extra hour is still a break violation, and Article 119 applies to that too.

The Objective Hours Record Every Employer Must Keep

Japan does not ask employers to take the worker's word for it. Three rules say so:

  1. The 2017 MHLW Guidelines on measures employers must take to properly ascertain working hours: the employer must establish start and finish times by on-the-spot confirmation or an objective record such as a time card, an IC card or a computer log. Self-reporting is allowed only where unavoidable, and then the employer has to explain why accuracy matters, check the reports against reality, and never cap what a worker may declare.
  2. Article 66-8-3 of the Industrial Safety and Health Act, in force since 1 April 2019: every employer must ascertain each worker's working hours by an objective method, and the duty covers managers and supervisors who are otherwise outside the overtime rules, because it exists for their health, not their pay.
  3. Article 109 of the Labor Standards Act: wage ledgers, time cards and the other important labor documents must be kept for five years, with a transitional period of three years still running under Article 143. Keep five. A wage claim can reach back three years today, and the limitation period is set to lengthen.

The practical rule: an owner with an objective punch record for every person, every day, answers a Labor Standards Inspection Office visit or a wage claim with the actual hours. An owner with a self-reported sheet is asked why.

The Minimum Wage, by Prefecture

Japan's minimum wage is set per prefecture each autumn. For fiscal 2025, in force from October 2025 into early 2026 depending on the prefecture, the national weighted average is ¥1,121 an hour, up a record ¥66. Tokyo is highest at ¥1,226, Kanagawa at ¥1,225, and the lowest prefectures, Kochi, Miyazaki and Okinawa, are at ¥1,023, the first year every prefecture cleared ¥1,000. The government's stated target is a ¥1,500 average by the end of the decade, so expect another step this autumn.

The premium base and the minimum wage both come from the same number: ordinary pay divided by ordinary hours. An hourly record is what proves each.

How Punch Handles Japanese Working Time

Punch is built for the record every rule above depends on.

A Japan preset, in yen. Choose Japan at signup and Punch applies its Japan Labor Standards Act preset, with yen throughout: every hour past 8 in a day or 40 in a week at 1.25x, both lines tested on every shift. The 60-hour monthly step-up, the late-night supplement and the holiday rate are not in the preset. Punch does not count overtime across the calendar month or read the calendar for the day off, so apply those at payroll from the hour record, or set a Custom rule in Org Settings when your crew's pattern is fixed. The preset's own footer in Settings says exactly this, so nobody is surprised.

Start, break, and finish on every day. Your team punches in, punches out for the break, punches back in, and punches out from their phone. The 45- and 60-minute breaks, the 8-hour day, the 40-hour week and the hours that fell after 10 p.m. are on the record for every person, every day, stamped by the device, not written from memory on Friday. That is the objective method the 2017 Guidelines and the Industrial Safety and Health Act require.

The monthly count, visible. Reports roll up per person by day, week and pay period, so a worker's overtime hours for the month and the year are a glance, not a reconstruction. The 45-hour month, the 60-hour step and the 360-hour year show up before they are crossed.

A job-site geofence, not a camera. Punch-in can be limited to a geofence around the site. There is no photo at punch and no facial recognition, which matters in a country where the record exists for the worker's health as much as the employer's books.

Approvals before payroll. Managers approve hours one by one or bulk approve a whole pay period, then export to QuickBooks Online, Square, or a QuickBooks or Excel CSV for your shakai hoken rōmushi or payroll provider.

Five years, kept. Approved pay periods stay in Punch, per person, with every punch behind them. When the Labor Standards Inspection Office asks for the hours, it is a report.

No signal, no gap. Punches made in a basement kitchen, a parking structure or a rural site sync when the phone reconnects. A shared iPad in kiosk mode, with a PIN for each worker, covers a workshop door or a yard gate.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the overtime rate in Japan?

At least 25% over the ordinary hourly wage for hours past 8 a day or 40 a week. Late-night work between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. adds 25%, work on the statutory day off is 35%, and overtime past 60 hours in a calendar month is 50%. The rates stack when the hours overlap.

Does the 50% rate for overtime over 60 hours apply to small businesses?

Yes, since 1 April 2023. The moratorium for small and medium employers ended on that date. Every employer in Japan now pays 50% for monthly overtime beyond 60 hours.

Can an employer in Japan require overtime without a 36 Agreement?

No. Overtime and holiday work are only lawful after a written Article 36 agreement with the majority union or a majority-elected worker representative has been filed with the Labor Standards Inspection Office. Even with one, overtime is capped at 45 hours a month and 360 a year, or up to 720 a year under a special clause with monthly limits.

Does an employer in Japan have to record working hours?

Yes. Since 1 April 2019, Article 66-8-3 of the Industrial Safety and Health Act requires every employer to ascertain each worker's hours by an objective method such as a time card or a system log, managers included. The 2017 MHLW Guidelines say the same for the overtime record, and Article 109 requires the records to be kept for five years, three during the transitional period.

What is the minimum wage in Japan in 2026?

It varies by prefecture. For fiscal 2025, in force since October 2025, the national weighted average is ¥1,121 an hour; Tokyo is ¥1,226 and the lowest prefectures are ¥1,023. The next revision takes effect in autumn 2026.

Keep a Japanese Record That Holds Up

Japanese working time is a set of lines drawn across the hours your crew actually works: 8 a day and 40 a week before the premium starts, 10 p.m. before the night rate starts, 45 hours a month and 360 a year before the agreement runs out, 60 hours a month before the rate steps up, 45 and 60 minutes of break, one day off a week, and an objective record of all of it kept for five years.

Punch records every punch in, punch out and break, applies the Japan preset or your Custom rates, rolls up the day, the week and the month, and exports approved hours straight to payroll. Pricing is flat per workspace, with no per-user line item, and every plan includes every feature. The 14-day free trial starts on signup, no credit card required.

Start tracking Japanese hours correctly with Punch →

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