STRUCTURAL NOTE 07 · LABOR CONTRACTS
On the contract-duration axis, Japan has only two states: fixed-term, or no fixed term.
労働契約法上の区分は「期間の定めがあるか／ないか」の一点のみ。正社員・契約社員・パート・アルバイトは職場上の呼称であって法的な契約類型ではない。
ONE LEGAL AXIS, THREE INFORMAL ONESWORKPLACE LABELS READ ACROSS AXES THAT ARE INDEPENDENT
01
Term期間の定め
Fixed term / no fixed term. Labor Contracts Act. This is the legal division on the contract-duration axis.
02
Hours所定労働時間
Standard employment status / part-time worker 短時間労働者. Part-Time and Fixed-Term Workers Act.
03
Who employs雇用主
Direct / dispatched 派遣. Worker Dispatching Act — treated in a separate note.
NOT A CONTRACT TYPE · 呼称の軸
正社員・契約社員・パート
Workplace labels are informal readings of three independent axes at once. A part-time worker can hold a contract without a fixed term, and a full-time worker a fixed-term one.
→ NEVER DERIVE THE TERM FROM THE LABEL
Japanese law divides labor contracts on exactly one question: is there a fixed term, or is there not? Workplace labels do not determine the contract-duration state.
The division earns its place at the exit: a fixed-term contract has one door more, and both of its doors are regulated — ending it mid-term is harder than dismissing a worker on a contract without a fixed term, and letting it expire is not automatically the end of anything.
1
Entry
WHAT IS ACTUALLY FIXED AT THE START · 開始時に確定すること01 · THE ONLY LEGAL DIVISION 期間の定めの有無
A fixed term, or no fixed term. The job title, working pattern and workplace label do not determine whether the labor contract has a fixed term.
02 · COMMON TO EVERY CONTRACT 全契約共通の明示
At conclusion, and at each fixed-term renewal, the scope of possible changes to workplace and duties must be stated. LSA Art. 15
03 · FIXED-TERM ONLY 有期にのみ追加される明示
Whether renewal is possible and the applicable renewal criteria; since April 2024, any renewal cap by number or total period must also be stated — introducing or lowering a cap later requires the reason to be explained in advance. At each renewal that triggers conversion rights: the opportunity to apply, and the conditions that would apply after conversion.
2
The exits
出口の構造 — ONE DOOR MORE, BOTH REGULATEDNO FIXED TERM 無期労働契約
FIXED TERM 有期労働契約
How it can end
Dismissal; resignation; termination by mutual agreement; automatic termination (death, expiry of a leave-of-absence period); mandatory retirement where a retirement age is set.
ONE ADDITIONAL EXITThe same, plus expiry of the fixed term.
Dismissal by the employer
LCA Art. 16 — objectively reasonable grounds, and appropriate in general societal terms. There is no "mid-term": the contract has no term.
A HIGHER BAR, NOT A LOWER ONENecessarily mid-term. LCA Art. 17(1) — "unavoidable circumstances."
Expiry of term
No such exit exists. 雇止め has no meaning here.
Expiry is not a dismissal, and no dismissal rule attaches to it. What is tested is the refusal to renew, under LCA Art. 19.
If the exit is blocked
An invalid dismissal leaves the contract in force, unchanged.
The contract is deemed renewed on the same terms as before — it does not lose its fixed term.
Worker’s own exit
Two weeks after notice. Civil Code Art. 627(1)
Bound by the term — except for a compelling reason (Civil Code Art. 628) and, for contracts exceeding one year, at any time once one year has elapsed, subject to that provision’s exclusions. LSA Supp. Art. 137
3
The expiry door is not free
雇止め法理 · DOCTRINE ON NON-RENEWAL — LCA ART. 19Non-renewal is not dismissal. Art. 19 does not reclassify it — it asks whether it should be judged like one.
TWO LIMBS · EITHER SUFFICES
1 実質無期型 — renewals repeated to the point that ending the contract by non-renewal is socially equivalent to dismissing a worker on a contract without a fixed term.
2 期待保護型 — reasonable grounds to expect renewal.
2 期待保護型 — reasonable grounds to expect renewal.
WHAT IS WEIGHED
Number and length of past renewals; what was said at conclusion and each renewal; whether the renewal procedure was substantive or a formality; whether the work is permanent rather than temporary.
THE WORKER MUST ACT
The worker must apply for renewal before expiry, or to conclude a contract without delay after it — a requirement of the provision itself.
EFFECT
Where a limb is met and the refusal lacks reasonable grounds and appropriateness, the employer is deemed to have accepted the application — the contract continues on the same terms, including the same period.
4
Five years is a right, not an event
無期転換 · CONVERSION — LCA ART. 18NOT AUTOMATIC
Exceeding five years in aggregate creates a right to apply. The application converts the contract; the employer is deemed to have accepted and cannot refuse. Oral application is valid; writing is safer.
WHEN IT BITES
Effect runs from the first day of the next contract period.
WHAT CHANGES
Unless otherwise agreed, conditions after conversion are the same as before. Conversion changes the term — not the status, the pay or the duties.
SPECIAL RULES
Fixed-term workers with expert knowledge, etc., and certain workers continuously employed after mandatory retirement, may be subject to special rules where the employer’s employment-management plan is certified by the Director of the Prefectural Labour Bureau. University researchers and teachers have a ten-year threshold under a separate statute.
The five-year clock is not a sum. A gap between contracts of six months or more resets the aggregate — and where the preceding aggregate is under one year, a shorter graduated period is enough to reset it. A relationship that looks continuous can have a legal aggregate that started over; a period of leave with the contract still on foot continues to count.
5
The fixed-term-specific procedural layer
有期にのみ付随する手続規制NON-RENEWAL NOTICE
At least 30 days before expiry where the contract has been renewed three or more times, or the worker has been continuously employed for over one year — unless it was made clear in advance that it would not be renewed. MHLW standard under LSA Art. 14(2).
REASON ON REQUEST
A certificate stating the reason for non-renewal must be issued if the worker asks for it.
LCA ART. 17(2)
The employer must take care not to set terms shorter than necessary and then repeat renewals of them.
ANTI-AVOIDANCE
Non-renewal, or a renewal cap introduced after the fact, aimed at preventing conversion rights from arising may be impermissible.
FIVE EQUATIONS THAT DO NOT HOLD成り立たない五つの等式
≠
Fixed-term ≠ non-regular
有期＝非正規、ではない
有期＝非正規、ではない
≠
No fixed term ≠ regular employee
無期＝正社員、ではない
無期＝正社員、ではない
≠
Mid-term dismissal ≠ easier
期間途中の解雇はむしろ厳しい
期間途中の解雇はむしろ厳しい
≠
Non-renewal ≠ dismissal
雇止めは解雇ではない
雇止めは解雇ではない
≠
Five years ≠ automatic conversion
5年で自動的に無期にはならない
5年で自動的に無期にはならない
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR POLICY
Contract type is a boolean — term or no term — and almost nothing else about the worker follows from it.
Keep the workplace label in a separate field and never derive the contract type from it: "パート" says nothing about whether a term exists. The five-year aggregate is not a running total — model it as an accumulator with reset events, where the reset threshold itself depends on the accumulated value at the time of the gap. Renewal expectation cannot be a stored flag; it is inferred from the renewal history and the wording used at each renewal. Keep that history — it is the evidence.
