Japón - Diversification of types of enterprise (2010)

The Supreme Court ruled that an entity can only be considered an employer when «such an entity is in a position to actually determine workers’ basic working conditions» through direct involvement. In most cases, holding companies or investment fund companies (which are very common in Japan) are only indirectly involved in influencing the decisions on working conditions of their shareholding companies. Hence, they are not considered as employers in law, and it is difficult for trade unions to conduct collective bargaining with holding companies or investment fund companies.