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Industrial Safety and Health Law
Law No. 57 of June 8, 1972

Latest Amendments:
Law No. 25 of May 31, 2006

In Japanese

Chapter I. General Provisions

Article 1. (Purpose)
  • The purpose of this Act is to secure, in conjunction with the Labor Standards Act (Act No. 49 of 1947), the safety and health of workers in workplaces, as well as to facilitate the establishment of comfortable working environment, by promoting comprehensive and systematic countermeasures concerning the prevention of industrial accidents, such as taking measures for the establishment of standards for hazard prevention, clarifying the safety and health management responsibility and the promotion of voluntary activities with a view to preventing industrial accidents
Article 2. (Definitions)
  • For the purpose of this Act, the terms listed in the following items shall be defined as follows:
    • (i) "industrial accident" shall be defined as a case in which a worker is injured, contracts a disease or is killed due to causes attributable to buildings, facilities, raw materials, gases, vapors, dusts, etc., in or with which he is employed, or as a result of his work actions or attending to his duties;
    • (ii) "worker" shall be defined as in Article 9 of the Labor Standards Act (excluding a person who is employed at an undertaking or office at which only relatives who are living together are employed, and a housework employee.);
    • (iii) "employer" shall be defined as one who carries on an undertaking and employs a worker or workers;
    • (iii)-2 "chemical substance" shall be defined as an element or a compound;
    • (iv) "working environment measurement" shall be defined as measurement design, sampling and analysis (including analytical research) carried out on the atmospheric environment and other working environments in order to grasp the actual conditions of the working environment.
Article 3. (Responsibilities of Employer, etc.)
  • (1) The employer shall not only comply with the minimum standards for preventing industrial accidents provided for in this Act, but also endeavor to ensure the safety and health of workers in workplaces through creating a comfortable working environment and improving working conditions. He/She shall, furthermore, endeavor to cooperate in the measures for the prevention of industrial accidents to be taken by the State.
  • (2) A person who designs, manufactures or imports machines, instruments and other equipment, or one who manufactures or imports raw materials, or one who constructs or designs buildings, shall endeavor, in designing, manufacturing, importing or constructing them, to contribute to the prevention of the occurrence of industrial accidents caused by their use.
  • (3) An orderer of construction work, etc. who commissions work to others, shall consider not to impose on them conditions which may impede performing safe and healthy work in terms of construction methods, period, etc.
Article 4.
  • Workers shall, not only observe matters necessary for preventing industrial accidents, but also endeavour to cooperate in the measures pertaining to prevention of industrial accidents conducted by employers or other said parties.
Article 5. (Application of Provisions Related to the Employer)
  • (1) Where two or more employers, in a construction-related undertaking, happen to have contracted jointly for construction work to be carried out at one site, they shall, as provided for by The Ordinance of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, appoint one of them as their representative and notify the Director of the Prefectural Labor Bureau accordingly.
  • (2) Where the notification under the provisions of the preceding paragraph has not been given, the Director of the Prefectural Labor Bureau shall designate the representative.
  • (3) The change of the representative set forth in the preceding two paragraphs shall not be valid unless notification is given to the Director of the Prefectural Labor Bureau.
  • (4) In the case provided for in paragraph (1), this Act shall be applied by regarding such undertaking as an undertaking solely of the representative referred to in paragraph (1) or (2), the said representative alone as the employer in the said undertaking, and the workers engaged in the work in suchundertaking as workers employed by the said representative alone.
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