Hiring and Workplace Compliance in Japan

The practical process for hiring a company's first employee (not counting directors) runs as follows: open the company's insurance office at Hello Work (easiest done in person at their office); draft either a notice of working conditions or go straight to an employment contract; file the pension fund forms for acquiring insured-person status, plus a dependent-change form if there is a dependent; file the insured-person acquisition form with Hello Work once the company's insurance number is issued; and, if the employee previously worked elsewhere, forward the completed resident-tax form to the city office where they live. Pension fund paperwork is generally due within about three days of the employee's start date (confirm the current deadline, as it may change). If the employee just arrived in Japan on a Certificate of Eligibility, they will not yet have a pension number or My Number — they must first register at the city office and receive a residence certificate with a My Number a few days later. Hiring an employee differs from setting up a director's own salary mainly in requiring registration with Hello Work. Handling employee social insurance (unlike taxes) requires a separate license — a licensed labor and social security attorney (sharoushi); administrative scriveners (gyoseishoshi) only handle administrative matters, and accountants only handle taxes — by law an accountant cannot also perform HR functions. An English-speaking HR consultant on employee and social-insurance matters was recommended in the chat. On workplace compliance: companies with 50 or more employees at one office must file an annual health-checkup report involving an appointed "industrial doctor" (sangyoi); missing this report risks fines. An employee cannot be forced to take a health checkup, but a documented notice reduces the company's risk; an employee can also apply directly to their insurer to be excluded from the lists insurers send to employers, though this opt-out must be requested separately from each insurer. BYOD (employees using personal phones for work) is often required by a business partner's security policy or certification rather than being merely a cultural quirk — it is a red flag for many partner companies' security teams, though a properly configured corporate profile on a personal device can address it safely. When hiring, serious background checks by employers are worth expecting: in one case an accounting firm doing a background check found a candidate's seven-year-old internal photos and documents from a past internship. Specialized firms, including international ones, exist to screen prospective employees, investors, or partners for criminal history, and hiring a private investigator is a common practice in Japan; because access to criminal records in Japan is difficult, it is recommended to vet both investors and employees' side work (for ties to yakuza or parallel employment at a competitor).