OUR SERVICES

WHAT WE OFFER

  1. Your Trusted Advisor

Heath will be your trusted advisor as you receive practical and innovative guidance on employment practices, customs, and compliance in Japan. We can also liase between you and your Japanese counsel and push them regarding smart risks, multiple options, and forward-thinking practices. We frequently work with Japan HR leaders who have difficulty coordinating global desires with local restrictions.

Some topics we advise on:

  • Wage and Hour—overtime, work hours, holidays, vacations, leaves of absence and flexible work schemes.

  • Hiring and Firing—Hiring Do’s and Don’ts, Offer Letters, performance management, employee discipline, and workforce termination, including individual and mass downsizing.

  • Disability and DEI—quotas, accommodation, leaves and limitations, as well as gender pay gap issues and female representation quota requirements.

  • Discrimination and Harassment—power harassment, sexual harassment, and recognized areas of discrimination.

  • Contingent Workforce— Co-Employment, independent contractors, dispatch workforce, part-time and contract workers.

  • Policy Amendments and Localization—Limitations and proper procedures to change policies; cautions and ideas when adding global policies.

  • Union and Litigation Assistance—Document preservation, effective negotiation methods, liaison with outside counsel to streamline reporting and add optimal strategies.

  • Health and Safety Issues—Annual Health Check requirements, overwork, stress, and leaves.

  • Employee, non-employee, and contingent workforce Privacy concerns in the workplace—including use and deletion of data rules.

  • Expat and People Movement and Work Location Issues.

  • Expenses, Deductions, Commuting Rules, and Clawback Restrictions.

  • Background Checks and Right to Work.

  • This and much more!

2. Project Assistance

Heath can assist you on any global or local projects touching on Japan employment practices. We can help you:

  • Develop projects for downsizing, transfer of employment, and policy changes in Japan.

  • Provide due diligence assistance for mergers and acquisitions. These often include assisting on transfers of employees, shutdown of departments, and layoffs.

  • Coordination between English-speaking leaders and Japanese counsel or HR related to employment projects.

3. Policy Localization

Many foreign companies doing business in Japan desire to localize their policies to be as consistent globally as possible.

  • Let us help localize your global policies to meet your business values.

  • Changing policies in Japan can be fraught with compliance issues. Let us help you navigate this process and tweak only those policies that must be changed.

  • We can help look at long term complications and outcomes for changing policies in Japan, including looking at risks, limitations and later problems in revocation of policies.

  • Some policies require procedures and employee representatives to be utilized. Let us help you navigate these requirements.

4. Expert Witness Testimony

Heath can act as an expert witness for your U.S. litigation involving Japan employment laws and practices.

  • If you have lawsuits in the U.S. and are looking for expert testimony, either in deposition or court hearings, relating to Japan employment laws and practices, we can help you.

  • We can also assist in examining practices and projects as part of the due diligence process prior to litigation or as assistance to negotiate a settlement. Don’t be caught unsuspected by Japanese laws or practices that affect your liability or the plaintiff’s remedies.

  • We can help navigate conflict of laws issues for cross-border issues and contracts, including choice of law provisions.

Heath can also act as a percipient witness by attending investigations, employee interviews, HR discussions and so forth in Japan, and can draft reports regarding these.

5. Presentations and Training

Want training for groups or individuals on specific areas of Japan employment? We can do one hour to full day seminars—on site or remotely. Heath is regularly recommended as an entertaining speaker and has spoken at such functions as Amazon “all hands” meetings in Seattle. We can:

  • Present and train HR, foreign leaders, and employees on aspects of handling employment in Japan.

  • Provide English language training and explanations of differences between country employment practices, including nuances of terminology used in Japanese that do not exist in English. They will walk out of these seminars knowing more than 90% of foreigners addressing employment issues in Japan and can speak with native Japanese HR or outside counsel with authority, saving time, fees, and missteps.

  • Seminars available on almost any employment topic as applicable to Japan, such as DEI, disability, wage and hour compliance, harassment, negotiation with the Japanese, and termination.

  • Many presentations are instrumental in bringing a cultural awareness to foreigners as they work with the Japanese.

6. Investigations

Heath has led countless investigations in Japan with HR and business leaders on a variety of topics. Many foreign companies run into problems investigating issues involving a foreign employee (as complainant or accused) who does not speak Japanese. Utilizing their U.S. or foreign internal teams can be problematic because the laws and issues in Japan are quite different. Leadership also often wants full reports in English to make informed decisions, which can be difficult to obtain from Japanese investigative teams.

Heath can assist in:

  • Investigations and drafting of reports, opinions and recommendations related to harassment, discrimination, misconduct, or other employment-related allegations.

  • Mergers and acquisition investigations related to employment laws, transfers of employees, downsizing, and best practices for processing the employment aspect of M&A transactions, including bankruptcy or shutdown situations.

  • Auditing assistance for meeting quotas, DEI, equal pay, disability, overtime, and other compliance issues.

7. Connections/Referrals

Many foreign companies enter the Japan marketplace without a network of connections for their needs. Heath can assist you to:

  • Find outside counsel that is best for your specific legal issue. Heath knows which attorneys are best for your specific employment law issue—unions, labor board audits, employment litigation, and so forth.

  • Help you find proper support for tax, immigration, translation, relocation services, hiring agencies, or other non-legal needs from among the best Japan has to offer.

  • Consolidate all partner reports (from Japanese or English) into single and concise English reports for ease of business leadership review and decision making, and attend meetings to assist with any questions.

    Heath can be your networking partner to help you establish and maintain the best professional network Japan has to offer.

8. Negotiation

Japanese negotiation techniques are very different from Western style negotiation. Heath can help:

  • Negotiate from a position of strength to fine the win-win scenario in negotiation.

  • Help train or assist utilizing Japanese techniques and coordinating with counsel. Negotiation culture and recommendations can be provided at each step.

  • Training on negotiating with the Japanese for HR or business leaders.

  • Heath has also trained many HR professionals in Japan on Western style techniques. Many are not trained in proper negotiation techniques and often create more problems than they solve through a heavy-handed style not consistent with US or Japan negotiation techniques.

9. Contract Assistance

Heath can assist with employment contracts, including:

  • Regular (“seishain”) employment contracts, temporary employment contracts, bilingual and/or English employment contracts in Japan.

  • Temp agency contracts, including dispatch (haken) and secondment (shukko) agreements.

  • Service contracts with companies.

  • Separation agreements and settlement arrangements, and related considerations.

  • Transfers, downsizing, and mutual agreements.

  • Work Rules and policy and related employee representative agreements (“Article 36 Agreements”).

  • NDAs and restrictive covenant agreements.

三寸の舌に五尺の身を亡ぼす

A five foot tall life may be lost by a three inch tongue.

— Ancient Japanese Proverb