Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - Japan (Ratification: 2000)

The Committee notes the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC) report for the World Trade Organization General Council Review of the Trade Policies of Japan dated 31 January and 2 February 2007.

Article 4. Exclusion of limited categories of employment or work from the scope of application of the Convention. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that employment in family undertakings and domestic workers are not subject to the Labour Standards Law, and hence the Government does not have much information on the extent of child labour in the above categories. The Committee also noted that the law restricting hazardous work does not apply to those employed in family undertakings because it is inappropriate to treat workers employed in a family undertaking in a similar way to other workers. The Committee requested the Government to provide information on the measures taken or envisaged to ensure that children under 18, working in family undertakings or as domestic workers, do not carry out work that is likely to jeopardize their health, safety or morals.

The Committee notes that according to the ITUC’s report, children’s rights are, in general, protected adequately in Japan and that education is free and compulsory until the age of 15. Effectively implemented legal provisions ban the exploitation of children in the workplace and establish that children under 15 years of age cannot be employed and that children under 18 years of age cannot be employed in dangerous or harmful jobs. The ITUC concludes that child labour is not a problem in Japan and that the implementation of domestic legal provisions regarding child labour is effective.

The Committee notes in the Government’s report that acts that remarkably hinder the welfare of children are banned by section 34 of the Children’s Welfare Law. Furthermore, article 27 of the Constitution of Japan states that “children shall not be exploited”.