What is zangyō? Overtime in Japan and the legal limits

In Japan, overtime is called zangyō (残業). For many Brazilians who go to the country looking for work, the long hours can seem daunting, especially where staying late is treated as proof of effort. The central question is whether a company can require those extra hours, and what it has to pay when it does. Here we set out how zangyō works, which agreement makes the order lawful, and where a shorter schedule still exists.

A normal day under the Labor Standards Act stops at 8 hours, and a normal week stops at 40, with breaks left out of the count. Some designated small workplaces still use a 44-hour week. Hours past that line are statutory overtime. A company can order them after it signs a 36 agreement, the saburoku kyōtei (サブロク協定), with the union that organizes a majority of the workers, or with a representative elected by that majority, and files the paper with the Labor Standards Inspection Office. Inside that filed agreement, overtime is a work instruction. The habit of staying because the rest of the team is still at their desks is a separate pressure, and it has not gone away.

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How does overtime work in Japan?

The 36 agreement

The agreement takes its name from Article 36. The company signs it with the majority union. Where that union is absent, the other party is a representative elected by a majority of the workers. A representative picked by the employer makes the agreement invalid. The signed text goes to the Labor Standards Inspection Office, and the workplace has to make it available to the people it covers. It names the kind of work, the reasons, and how many overtime hours and holiday hours are allowed.

What the extra hour pays

The premium is a percentage on top of the hourly wage. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare sets these floors:

When the hour falls	Minimum extra pay
Past 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week	25%
On a statutory weekly rest day	35%
Between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.	25%
Statutory overtime that also falls between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.	50%
A statutory rest day that also falls between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.	60%
Statutory overtime past 60 hours in the same month	50% on the hours above 60
Those hours above 60 when they also fall at night	75%

Since April 1, 2023, the 50% rate for hours above 60 in a month covers smaller companies as well. A company may pay more than these floors. The percentages are added when two premiums land on the same hour, which is why overtime at night is at least 50% and a rest day at night is at least 60%.

The ceiling

Once a 36 agreement is filed, the ordinary ceiling is 45 hours a month and 360 hours a year. People on a one-year variable working-hours system use a tighter ordinary ceiling: 42 hours a month and 320 hours a year.

A special clause can raise the ordinary numbers when there is a temporary, special reason. Even then, the statute keeps four limits. Overtime across the year stays within 720 hours, and that yearly figure counts overtime alone. In any single month, overtime and work on statutory rest days together stay under 100 hours. The average of those combined hours stays within 80 hours a month across every span of two, three, four, five, and six months. Months that go past 45 hours of overtime cannot number more than six in the year.

The same ministry guide lists construction, driving, doctors, and sugar manufacturing in Kagoshima and Okinawa as work that stayed outside this ceiling until March 31, 2024. Research and development of new technology, products, or services remains outside it. A factory or an office on an ordinary schedule uses the ceilings above. For the jobs on that separate list, the agreement on file is the paper that shows the ceiling that applies.

On September 1, 2026, the ministry changed how labor offices supervise these hours. Offices stopped telling every workplace to cut overtime to 45 hours a month on the number alone. They look first at whether the health and welfare measures written into the 36 agreement are actually being carried out, and they still step in when the hours look likely to harm health. That announcement left the ceilings in the Labor Standards Act as they were.

Brazilians in factories

Many Brazilians who move to Japan work in factories, where zangyō is often requested. A lot of them take those hours to increase their income. The premiums and the ceilings above cover employees at workplaces in Japan, including foreign workers. Hours the agreement leaves out, and hours that never reach the time sheet, still have to be paid.

Are you required to do zangyō?

When a valid 36 agreement covers the hours, and the instruction stays inside that agreement and the work rules, the company can require the overtime. An instruction with no filed agreement, an instruction past the ceiling, or hours left off the time sheet sit outside that permission. In those cases the premium is still owed.

Social pressure

Japan has a strong teamwork culture, and many workers stay late so they do not look less committed than the colleagues beside them. Leaving while a senior is still at the desk can feel like a statement, even when the day's work is finished. That pressure shows up in offices and on factory floors, and people accept zangyō because of it even when the agreement never required that particular night.

Job ads, unpaid hours, and a fixed allowance

An advertisement that calls zangyō mandatory is a reason to ask for the number of hours, because a company with a filed 36 agreement can schedule overtime. Be wary when the ad hides how many hours are included, treats unpaid overtime as normal, or describes a load the ceiling does not allow. Unpaid overtime has a familiar name in Japanese workplaces, sābisu zangyō (サービス残業): the hours are worked, they stay off the sheet, and the premium is still owed.

A lot of contracts fold a set number of overtime hours into the monthly pay. The ministry calls this a fixed overtime allowance, kotei zangyōdai (固定残業代). Job ads also use minashi zangyō (みなし残業) for the same idea. The allowance can sit inside the base pay or beside it. Two figures have to be readable: which part of the wage is ordinary pay, and which part is the premium for a stated number of hours. If the hours actually worked would cost more than that fixed sum under the legal rates, the company pays the difference. A recruitment notice that uses this system has to show the calculation, the hours and the amount, the base pay with the allowance taken out, and the promise to pay anything beyond those hours.

Can you find a job with a lighter schedule?

Education, administrative work, and companies that put a no-overtime day on the calendar often keep a shorter day than a factory line. Small and medium-sized companies, and a lot of startups, are where flexible hours show up. Part-time work, arubaito, is the route when the hours themselves need to move.

What to ask before you accept

If your priority is time away from the workplace, ask how many overtime hours a normal month contains, whether a 36 agreement is on file, and whether the salary already includes a fixed overtime allowance. Reviews from former employees show how the place actually handles zangyō. The search can be challenging, and it is possible to find posts that respect a limit, in schools, in offices, and in smaller firms.

No-overtime days

In recent years many companies have adopted a no-overtime day and more flexible hours, as a way to cut the habit of staying late. A no-overtime day is a weekday when people are expected to leave at the ordinary time. That practice puts the monthly ceiling into the weekly routine.

The paycheck and the time outside work

For many people who come to Japan to work, a heavy month of zangyō changes the paycheck and also takes the hours that could have gone to Japanese culture outside the shift. Death from overwork has its own name, karoshi, and a separate article follows that subject. If you are in Japan, or you are planning to go, think carefully about how you want to spend your time and what is most important to you.