The Industrial Safety and Health Act works together with the Labor Standards Act to secure worker safety and health, prevent industrial accidents, and promote comfortable workplace environments. Employers, safety managers, HR teams, contractors, and researchers consult it when identifying statutory safety-management roles, hazard-prevention duties, health examinations, chemical information duties, and inspection powers. This article covers selected core provisions of the Act and does not cover detailed technical standards in ordinances, workers' compensation, or site-specific safety judgments.
Purpose, Definitions, and Responsibility
The Act begins by defining industrial accidents and assigning responsibility across employers, workers, suppliers, and clients. Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 provide the policy and planning frame for later duties.
Article 1 states that the Act aims, together with the Labor Standards Act, to secure worker safety and health in workplaces and promote comfortable workplace environments by establishing hazard-prevention standards, clarifying responsibility systems, promoting voluntary activities, and advancing comprehensive and systematic measures for preventing industrial accidents. Article 2 defines Industrial Accident as injury, illness, or death of a Worker caused by buildings, equipment, raw materials, gas, vapor, dust, work actions, or other work-related causes.
Article 2 also defines Worker by reference to Article 9 of the Labor Standards Act, excluding persons employed only by relatives living together and domestic servants, and defines Business Operator as a person conducting business and employing Workers. Article 3 requires Business Operators not only to comply with the minimum standards in the Act but also to secure worker safety and health through comfortable workplace environments and improved working conditions. Article 4 requires Workers and persons working in the same place as Workers to observe necessary matters for preventing industrial accidents and cooperate with measures implemented by Business Operators and related persons.
Article 5 contains special rules for joint construction contractors. Articles 6, 7, and 8 require the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare to formulate, revise, and publish an Industrial Accident Prevention Plan after hearing the Labour Policy Council. Article 9 authorizes the Minister to make necessary recommendations or requests to business operators, their organizations, and other related persons for smooth implementation of that plan.
Safety and Health Management System
The Act creates workplace roles before imposing detailed technical measures. Articles 10, 11, 12, 12-2, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, and 19 show how management responsibility is allocated inside workplaces and multi-contractor sites.
Article 10 requires a Business Operator, for each workplace of the size prescribed by Cabinet Order, to appoint a General Safety and Health Manager and have that person exercise overall management over matters such as danger and health-impairment prevention, safety and health education, health examinations, and investigation of industrial-accident causes. Article 11 requires a Safety Officer for workplaces in industries and sizes prescribed by Cabinet Order, and Article 12 requires a Health Officer for workplaces of the size prescribed by Cabinet Order.
Article 12-2 requires selection of a Safety and Health Promoter, or Health Promoter for certain industries, at smaller workplaces outside the Article 11 and Article 12 categories. Article 13 requires appointment of an Industrial Physician at workplaces of the size prescribed by Cabinet Order, requires the Industrial Physician to have medical knowledge prescribed by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Order, and gives the Industrial Physician power to make necessary recommendations to the Business Operator concerning worker health management.
Article 14 requires appointment of an Operations Chief for work requiring management to prevent industrial accidents, such as high-pressure indoor work and other work prescribed by Cabinet Order. Article 15 requires specified principal contractors in construction and other industries to appoint an Overall Safety and Health Controller when workers and related contractors' workers perform work at the same place. Articles 17, 18, and 19 require a Safety Committee, Health Committee, or Safety and Health Committee at workplaces meeting the statutory categories.
Hazard Prevention and Worker Cooperation
The Act next states direct duties to prevent dangers and health impairment. Articles 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 25-2, 26, 28, 29, 30, and 31 are the main entry points for workplace measures and contractor coordination.
Article 20 requires a Business Operator to take necessary measures to prevent dangers caused by machinery and other equipment, explosive and flammable materials, electricity, heat, and other energy. Article 21 requires measures to prevent dangers arising from excavation, quarrying, cargo handling, logging, and other work operations, and from places where Workers may fall or where earth or objects may collapse. Article 22 requires measures to prevent health impairment caused by raw materials, gas, vapor, dust, oxygen deficiency, radiation, noise, vibration, abnormal pressure, and other listed causes.
Article 23 requires measures concerning passageways, floors, stairs, ventilation, lighting, heating, moisture prevention, rest, evacuation, cleanliness, and similar matters to prevent danger or health impairment. Article 24 requires measures to prevent industrial accidents arising from work actions or other work-related causes. Article 25 requires immediate necessary measures to evacuate Workers when an imminent danger of industrial accident occurs, and Article 25-2 requires specified measures for explosion, fire, and collapse risks in work prescribed by Cabinet Order.
Article 26 requires Workers to comply with necessary matters in response to measures taken by the Business Operator under Articles 20 through 25 and 25-2. Article 28 authorizes the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare to publish technical guidelines necessary for preventing dangers or health impairment. Articles 29, 30, and 31 add duties for principal contractors and orderers to coordinate safety and health measures where multiple contractors or construction work are involved.
Education, Chemicals, and Health Examinations
The Act also uses information and health-management duties to prevent workplace harm. Articles 57, 57-2, 57-3, 59, 61, 65, 66, 66-8, and 66-10 are important landmarks for chemicals, training, qualifications, work environment measurement, and medical checks.
Article 57 requires labeling or document delivery for containers or packages of specified substances that may cause danger or health impairment to Workers. Article 57-2 requires notification of information on specified substances through safety data sheets or other prescribed methods, and Article 57-3 requires a Business Operator to investigate danger or health-impairment risk when handling specified substances and to take necessary measures based on the investigation result.
Article 59 requires a Business Operator to provide safety and health education when employing a Worker, when changing the Worker's work content, and when assigning a Worker to dangerous or harmful work prescribed by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Order. Article 61 restricts specified dangerous or harmful work to persons who hold the required license or have completed the required skill training or special education.
Article 65 requires work environment measurement in indoor workplaces or other workplaces where harmful work is performed, according to categories prescribed by Cabinet Order. Article 66 requires a Business Operator to conduct medical examinations for Workers as prescribed by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Order. Article 66-8 requires an interview and guidance by a physician for Workers whose working hours or other conditions meet statutory criteria, and Article 66-10 requires psychological burden checks and related measures under the conditions stated in that article.
Inspection, Orders, and Penalties
The Act gives labor authorities powers to inspect, order corrective action, and penalize violations. Articles 88, 91, 92, 94, 98, 99, 100, 101, 119, 120, and 122 are useful enforcement landmarks.
Article 88 requires notification to the Labor Standards Inspection Office Chief before specified construction, installation, relocation, or alteration of buildings, machinery, or other facilities, according to the article's categories. Article 91 authorizes Labor Standards Inspectors to enter workplaces, question related persons, inspect books and documents, inspect working environments, and inspect or take samples of products and materials without compensation, where necessary for enforcement of the Act. Article 92 provides that Labor Standards Inspectors have the authority of judicial police officers for offenses under the Act.
Article 94 authorizes occupational-safety and health experts to enter workplaces and inspect matters concerning safety and health when necessary under the article. Article 98 allows an administrative order requiring suspension of all or part of work, suspension of use of buildings or equipment, or other necessary matters when statutory requirements are violated and there is urgency to prevent industrial accidents. Article 99 allows orders concerning machines, equipment, or buildings that do not conform to standards.
Article 100 authorizes the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, Prefectural Labour Bureau Directors, and Labor Standards Inspection Office Chiefs to require Business Operators, Workers, machine lenders, consultants, and others to report or appear as necessary for enforcement. Article 101 requires Business Operators to make the Act and orders based on it known to Workers by constant posting, document delivery, magnetic record methods, or other prescribed methods. Articles 119, 120, and 122 set penalties and dual-liability rules for specified violations.