Japan Weighs Ending Restrictions on Women's Underground Work, Keeping Maternity Safeguards

Excavation Jobs Are at the Center of the Review

Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is considering removing restrictions that still prevent women from doing certain underground jobs, including excavation in tunnels and mines. The proposal would end the remaining general restrictions on women's work introduced under the Labor Standards Act of 1947, while retaining protections linked to pregnancy and childbirth.

The change would reach occupations that stayed closed to women even after technical positions, such as construction management underground, became accessible in 2007. For women seeking jobs that involve digging and other skilled work below ground, the review could remove a legal barrier based on sex.

The ministry plans to survey underground working conditions and begin discussions in a subcommittee of the Labor Policy Council, an advisory body to the labour minister. The reported plan calls for discussions to begin within the month, although no calendar month, meeting date or timetable for a legal change was specified.

The ministry's reasoning is that there is little basis for excluding workers solely because they are women. Women's worker organisations have sought a review, saying some women want access to the skilled occupations that remain restricted.

The scope matters. Japan is considering ending a particular category of restrictions on employment, rather than removing every provision that protects women at work. Rules concerning maternity, dangerous substances, childcare time and menstrual leave appear separately in the law.

What the Underground Work Rule Says

The Labor Standards Act, Act No. 49 of April 7, 1947, places the restriction in Article 64-2, titled Limitations on Belowground Operations. The government's English translation displays a version last amended by Act No. 71 of 2018.

Article 64-2 states:

An employer must not have a woman work belowground, except in cases prescribed by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

The wording puts the obligation on employers. It also allows exceptions through a ministry order, a detailed legal rule issued under the authority of the act. This helps explain how some underground occupations could open to women while others remained restricted.

The practical boundary today is between types of work. Women have been permitted to hold technical positions underground, including construction management, since 2007. Restrictions have continued for skilled workers carrying out excavation and similar tasks, with danger cited as a reason for maintaining them.

A construction manager overseeing a tunnel project and a worker excavating that tunnel may therefore face different employment rules, even though both jobs involve going below ground. The review concerns the continued exclusion from the latter category.

How the Restrictions Changed Since 1947

The original law reflected the idea that women needed special protection from demanding work because they were physically weaker. Its restrictions covered work on holidays, work at night and underground employment.

Those rules were gradually removed as Japan addressed unreasonable differences in the treatment of men and women. The underground restriction is the remaining part of that general framework now under review.

• 1947: The Labor Standards Act established restrictions on women's holiday, night and underground work.
• 1999: General restrictions on women's holiday and night work were abolished.
• 2007: Underground technical positions, including construction management, were opened to women, while restrictions continued for skilled excavation work.
• Planned review: The ministry intends to survey underground work and discuss changes to the relevant laws and regulations through a Labor Policy Council subcommittee.

An earlier review is documented in an expert panel report published by the ministry on July 4, 2005. The panel began meeting in December 2004, following calls to allow women engineers to undertake supervisory and similar duties underground. Its work included site surveys at three mines and four tunnel construction sites, examining working environments, working practices and the effects of underground work on women's health.

At the time, the ministry said it would put the regulation of women's underground work before the Labor Policy Council's Equal Employment Opportunity Subcommittee as part of discussions on equal employment opportunities. The report concluded that improvements in working environments and practices had weakened the grounds for excluding women across the board, provided those safety and health standards were maintained, while calling for particular care to protect pregnant and postpartum workers. That announcement concerned the earlier review; it did not confirm the survey scope or discussion schedule for the current proposal.

The 2007 change is central to the present debate. Japan has already allowed women to work underground in some roles. The question now is whether sex should continue to determine access to the skilled occupations still covered by the restriction.

What Would Change for Workers and Employers?

Women seeking excavation jobs would gain access to a category of work that employers are currently restricted from assigning to them. Organisations representing women workers have pointed to that demand in calling for a review.

Employers would also face a different legal starting point. Under Article 64-2, the rule begins with a prohibition and then allows specified exceptions. Removing the remaining restriction would change how employers can consider women for the affected underground jobs.

The ministry's planned survey will examine the reality of underground work before discussions on legal changes. That is a concrete next step for a review involving both employment access and conditions in workplaces such as tunnels and mines.

The proposal is still at the consideration stage. Decisions on the wording of amendments and any replacement requirements would determine how the change operates in practice.

Why Maternity Protections Would Stay

The ministry intends to retain restrictions protecting pregnant workers from hazardous tasks, including work involving lead and mercury. These substances are specifically identified in the planned distinction between ending general restrictions on women and keeping maternity protections.

Article 64-3 addresses dangerous and hazardous operations separately from the underground rule. It prohibits employers from assigning a pregnant woman, or a woman who has given birth within the previous year, to work specified by ministry order as hazardous to pregnancy, childbirth or nursing.

The same article also addresses work hazardous to reproductive functions for women outside that pregnancy and postpartum category. It contains consent exceptions for certain circumstances defined through ministry orders, making the detailed rules important to how the provision applies.

The policy direction therefore separates access to an occupation from protections connected to a worker's health and reproductive circumstances. A woman could become eligible for an underground occupation while an employer still has duties concerning hazardous assignments during pregnancy.

Childbirth Leave Has Its Own Rules

Article 65 sets out protections before and after childbirth. A woman who requests leave must not be required to work during the six weeks before her expected delivery date. For a multiple pregnancy, that period is 14 weeks.

After childbirth, the law generally prohibits employment for eight weeks. A woman may return after six weeks if she requests it and a doctor approves the activities as having no adverse effect on her. The article also requires an employer to transfer a pregnant worker to lighter duties if she asks.

Article 66 separately regulates working hours for pregnant and postpartum women. Its provisions include restrictions involving working time and days off, alongside rights to request exemption from overtime, work on prescribed days off and night work.

These provisions explain why the proposed end of general restrictions can coexist with continued limits on particular assignments and schedules. The law treats a broad exclusion from an occupation differently from protections that respond to pregnancy, recovery after childbirth or a worker's request.

Other Rights Sit Outside the Underground Ban

Article 67 gives a woman raising an infant under one year old the right to request at least two periods of 30 minutes each day for childcare, in addition to ordinary breaks. An employer must not require her to work during the requested childcare periods.

Article 68 addresses menstrual leave. When a woman finds it extremely difficult to work during her menstrual period and requests leave, the employer must not require her to work that day.

Neither provision is the underground employment prohibition being reviewed. Their separate place in the act helps define the actual reach of the proposal: removing the remaining general exclusion from certain jobs, while other rights and health protections continue under their own legal rules.

What Happens Next?

The ministry's survey and the Labor Policy Council subcommittee discussions are the next planned steps. The council advises the labour minister, and the discussions are expected to address changes to the relevant laws and regulations.

The central decision is whether to finish the process begun by the 1999 and 2007 changes. Ending the remaining restriction would open skilled underground work to women while leaving maternity protections in place.

For workers and employers, the eventual legal wording will matter most: it will define which assignments become available and how the continuing health protections apply. Until amendments take effect, the existing restriction and its exceptions remain the framework for underground employment.

Key Points

• Japan's labour ministry is considering ending restrictions on women doing skilled underground work, including excavation.
• Women have been allowed to hold technical positions underground, such as construction management, since 2007.
• General restrictions on women's holiday and night work were abolished in 1999.
• The ministry plans a workplace survey and discussions through a Labor Policy Council subcommittee.
• Protections involving pregnancy and hazardous substances such as lead and mercury are intended to remain.
• No implementation date has been specified, and the proposal remains under consideration.