Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has set out the employer obligations that take effect on October 1, 2026, chief among them a statutory customer-harassment (kasuhara) prevention duty for every employer and the FY2026 regional minimum wage revision to a 1,177 yen national weighted average. The changes, published in the MHLW overview of major Reiwa 8 October system revisions, also revise the Equal Pay for Equal Work guidelines and expand employees' pension and health insurance to smaller establishments.
All Japanese employers must implement customer-harassment and applicant sexual-harassment prevention measures, apply the revised Equal Pay for Equal Work guidelines to part-time, fixed-term and dispatched staff, and raise pay to the new regional minimum wage by October 1, 2026, or face administrative guidance, public naming and statutory penalties under the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, the Labour Measures Comprehensive Promotion Act and the Minimum Wages Act.
What changes for Japanese employers on October 1, 2026?
Four employer-facing obligations move on the same date. The harassment amendments to the Equal Employment Opportunity Act and the Labour Measures Comprehensive Promotion Act, promulgated on June 11, 2025, turn prevention of customer harassment and sexual harassment toward job applicants into a duty for all employers regardless of size or sector. The revised Equal Pay for Equal Work guidelines add new guidance on bonuses, retirement allowances, family and housing allowances, welfare facilities and leave, and require employers to inform non-regular workers they may request a written explanation of any differential treatment.
| Obligation | Who is covered | What must be in place | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-harassment and applicant sexual-harassment prevention | All employers | Policy, consultation channels, prompt response, no retaliation | October 1, 2026 |
| Equal Pay for Equal Work guideline revision | Employers of part-time, fixed-term and dispatched workers | Updated treatment explanations; parity on bonuses, allowances and welfare | October 1, 2026 |
| FY2026 regional minimum wage | All employers paying the regional minimum wage | Hourly rate raised 54 to 65 yen, to a 1,177 yen weighted average | October 1, 2026 (sequential) |
| Employees' pension and health insurance expansion | Small establishments newly in scope | Premium-adjustment transitional measure; wage-threshold removal for short-time workers | October 1, 2026 |
On the wage side, every prefecture's regional minimum wage rises between 54 and 65 yen per hour, lifting the national weighted average to 1,177 yen, as set out on the MHLW minimum wage site. Because all regional minimum wages exceed 1,016 yen, a 20-hour week meets the former monthly threshold, so MHLW is removing the wage threshold for short-time workers' social-insurance coverage and introducing a premium-adjustment measure to cushion the take-home impact at small establishments newly brought into the employees' pension and health insurance system.
Who must comply, and by when?
The harassment duty is size- and sector-neutral: every employer in Japan must stand up an anti-harassment policy, consultation channels, prompt response procedures and a no-retaliation rule. The Equal Pay for Equal Work revision reaches employers of part-time, fixed-term and dispatched workers, including the dispatch-company and client-company contract updates required under the revised Worker Dispatch Act Enforcement Regulations. The minimum wage rise binds every employer paying the regional minimum wage, and the social-insurance expansion catches operators of smaller establishments whose workers cross the new coverage line. The common compliance date is October 1, 2026, with the minimum wage revised sequentially from that date.
What happens if employers miss the October 1, 2026 deadline?
Failure to take harassment prevention measures can trigger an MHLW ministerial recommendation and public disclosure under the Equal Employment Opportunity Act and the Labour Measures Comprehensive Promotion Act. Paying below the revised regional minimum wage is a Minimum Wages Act violation, exposing the employer to administrative guidance and statutory penalties. Non-compliance with the social-insurance expansion leaves short-time workers uncovered and premiums under-withheld, creating correction and back-payment obligations. Continuous, per-jurisdiction monitoring surfaces these MHLW changes the moment they publish, so compliance teams can act before the effective date rather than after a finding.
Before October 1, 2026, Japanese employers should verify that anti-harassment policies and consultation channels are documented and live, brief HR and frontline managers on the customer-harassment duty, update non-regular worker treatment explanations and dispatch contracts, recompute payroll against the new prefectural minimum wage, and confirm social-insurance enrolment for newly covered short-time workers. Obsidian tracks each of these instruments as it moves through the MHLW pipeline.
