Overtime hours in Japan

how many hours a month is normal

Monthly overtime hours as disclosed by the companies themselves. Useful when a job ad says "about 20 hours a month" and you want to know where that sits.

Median
11.0h
14,283 companies disclose it
Middle half
5.418.0
a quarter below 5.4h, a quarter above 18.0h
Lowest sector
3.9h
Medical, health care and welfare
Highest sector
21.8h
Transport and postal services

Distribution

0h10h20h30h40h+Median 11.0h

14,283 companies. 10 filings reporting more than 100 h a month are excluded — that is not compatible with statutory working hours. We do not correct the figure, we leave it out. The axis stops at the 99th percentile (40.0h); everything above is stacked in the last bin, otherwise a handful of outliers would leave most of the chart empty. The median, not the mean — a few extreme filings would drag the mean around.

By sector

Sector CompaniesMedian 25th pct75th pct
Medical, health care and welfare1,7083.91.87.0
Education, learning support1948.03.513.5
Compound services1238.14.213.1
Finance and insurance4549.46.113.9
Living-related and personal services and amusement services21310.04.015.9
Industries unable to classify10510.64.520.0
Services, n.e.c.1,83311.05.618.3
Real estate and goods rental and leasing27411.35.317.6
Scientific research, professional and technical services59511.45.519.0
Wholesale and retail trade1,96511.56.117.9
Electricity, gas, heat supply and water9212.07.820.0
Information and communications1,25712.17.217.6
Construction1,33913.06.520.0
Manufacturing3,26413.68.619.0
Accommodations, eating and drinking services34818.110.025.0
Transport and postal services43521.814.232.0

Sectors with at least 50 disclosing companies (16 of them). Medical, health care and welfare and Transport and postal services differ by 17.9h. Sectors are the major divisions of Japan's standard industrial classification; company size is not held constant.

How to read this

Not sure how this works in Japan? Overtime: how the system works.

Other benchmarks

Retirement payoutsBonusesStarting salariesOvertime hoursPaid leave uptakeMen's parental leaveWomen in managementall benchmarks.

Source: Shokuba-Lab (職場情報総合サイト) and the Database of Companies Promoting Women's Participation, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare — open data, compiled by Corpus. 14,283 companies. Not provided or endorsed by any government agency. Japanese edition: 残業時間の相場.