Labor Policy Report No.14
Laws and Policies concerning Employment Agency Businesses: A Century of the Employment Placement Act and the Employment Security Act

March 29, 2023

Summary

Research Objective

This research delves into the historical trajectory of regulatory changes that have governed employment agency businesses within the Japanese labor market for nearly a century. The findings presented in this report would hold significant value in shaping consideration for the future of the Employment Security Act.

Research Method

Literature review

Key Findings

Japanese laws and policies regulating employment agency businesses have undergone changes, oscillating between leniency and stringency, and even prohibition, in accordance with the ILO conventions. Consequently, (as an embodiment of contradictions inherent in Japan's postwar labor laws and regulations,) the regulation of kaseifu (housekeeper) under the labor supply business shifted towards a fee-charging employment placement and was labelled as kaji shiyounin (domestic servant) due to the GHQ’s policy of banning the labor supply businesses. Another separate issue arose regarding the accuracy of information published in job search magazines during the 1980s, but no legislation was ultimately enacted. In 2017, this matter was addressed and defined as a regulation on “providing recruitment/candidate information.”

Table 1. Number of labor supply businesses and the number of manual workers registered at employment agencies in 1940

Job title	Number of labor supply businesses	Number of workers registered at employment businesses
laborer	842	39,717
kaseifu (housekeeper)	700	24,643
handyman	504	24,780
non-regular factory worker	265	28,770
longshoreman	189	5,858
care giver	146	7,443
nurse	64	2,360
earthwork worker	60	5,235
carpenter	29	616
professional driver of vehicles	27	1,810
yuya (public bath) staff	23	3,401
giyu gijo (male servant in a brothel and sex worker)	13	3,392
cook	8	405
retail salesperson	8	68
couriers and messengers or postal service mail carriers	4	516
sakan (plasterer)	3	34
others	141	2,758
Total	3,026	151,806

Contents

• Full text of Labor Policy Report No.14 (PDF:9.0MB) [in Japanese]

Category

Labor laws/working rules

Research Period

FY2022

Author

HAMAGUCHI Keiichiro

Research Director General, The Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training