Japanese Employment Law Update (By Mariko Eto and Noriko Furukawa)

In this issue, we explain the Supreme Court decisions on Equal Work, Equal Pay rendered in October. The decisions were highly anticipated by many employers in Japan who utilize the services of fixed-term employees on a continuous basis but treat them differently from regular employees in various aspects including compensation, leave and benefits. The decisions provide some additional guidance on the legality of these treatments, although they leave a lot to be determined by an accumulation of future cases.