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To spot a risky SES offer in Japan, look beyond the label and ask who will actually direct your work. If a client’s manager—not your employer’s responsible manager—sets your tasks, hours, overtime, or work priorities while the contract calls the arrangement 業務委託, 準委任, or 請負, pause and seek clarification. Those are warning signs, not a legal verdict: Japan distinguishes labor dispatch from contracting by the real working arrangement, not just the paperwork.
What “body-shop” means—and what it does not
“Body-shop” is a colloquial, potentially pejorative term for a business that supplies workers to client projects. It is not, by itself, a legal classification. SES is also a business label, not proof that an assignment is lawful or unlawful. A client-site placement, a time-based service fee, or work under a 業務委託, 準委任, or 請負 agreement does not alone establish disguised contracting.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) states that whether an arrangement is labor dispatch or contracting is judged from actual circumstances under the applicable standard, rather than contract form alone. MHLW’s guide to properly conducting labor dispatch and contracting explains that disguised contracting can include a nominal contract arrangement whose reality is labor dispatch, or a mismatch between the contract form and the actual relationship.
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The standard known as 37号告示 considers both who manages the workers and whether the vendor operates an independent business. It is not a one-factor test: a single fact should not be treated as a definitive legal conclusion.
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Who manages your work?
Under the standard, a contractor directly manages its own workers’ work methods and performance, working hours and overtime instructions, workplace discipline, and decisions about worker placement. In practical terms, ask whether your employer’s manager sets priorities and handles approvals, or whether the client directs you as if you were its own staff member.
Who is responsible for the contracted business?
The standard also looks at whether the vendor assumes responsibility for the work and carries it out as an independent business, using its own resources or its own planning, expertise, or experience—not merely supplying labor. Ask what service or result the vendor is undertaking, who accepts it, and who bears responsibility and costs. The details matter; a client’s communication with a vendor or work at a customer site does not alone decide the classification.
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See MHLW’s 37号告示 standard for the criteria. Tokyo Labor Bureau’s explanation of disguised contracting identifies direct client instructions and control over attendance or working time as warning patterns, along with nominal supervisors who only relay client orders and unclear responsibility in a chain of vendors.
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Ask the recruiter or employer directly, then request written answers for points that affect your status, work conditions, or reporting line. You can use these questions to make a conversation specific rather than relying on a reassuring label.
- Who gives my day-to-day technical instructions and sets priorities? Ask whether requests, approvals, and changes go through your employer’s responsible manager or directly through the client’s manager.
- Who controls hours, overtime, holidays, and attendance? Find out who approves overtime or weekend work and who can direct a schedule change. The standard distinguishes actual management of working time from merely recording it.
- Who evaluates my work and decides my placement? Clarify who handles performance management, discipline, and assignment decisions, and what authority your employer’s manager has.
- What service or result is my employer responsible for delivering? Ask what work the vendor has undertaken, who accepts it, and who bears responsibility and business costs.
- Who is my legal employer, and what entities are in the contract chain? Request the employer’s name and, where relevant, the client or assignment entity’s name. Ask why any intermediaries are involved and who handles escalation.
- Which documents am I signing or receiving? Compare your employment contract, labor-condition notice, assignment-condition document, and any outsourcing or contracting agreement that applies to you. The written label does not override actual work practices.
Tokyo Labor Bureau frames the key question as 「あなたの使用者はだれですか?」—“Who is your employer?” If instructions come directly from the client rather than your own employer, the bureau says disguised contracting may be highly likely; that is an institutional warning, not a final decision about an individual case.
How to compare the documents with the expected day-to-day reality
Read the documents alongside what the recruiter says will happen on the assignment. A mismatch is a reason to ask for an explanation, not a reason to assume the answer from one clause or title.
- Employment status and named employer: Identify whether you are being hired as an employee, who employs you, and whether the documents describe dispatch status where applicable.
- Direction and evaluation: Compare the stated reporting line with who will actually assign work, review performance, and approve changes.
- Hours and attendance: Check who is expected to manage working time, overtime, holidays, and attendance—not just who collects time records.
- Service responsibility: Look for clarity about the vendor’s undertaking, acceptance of work, and responsibility for costs or delivery.
- Written conditions: Check pay, benefits, assignment period, and termination or renewal terms against what was explained to you.
- Vendor chain and escalation: Make sure you can identify your employer and know whom to contact if client instructions conflict with the agreed arrangement.
Pause for clarification if answers are evasive, the chain of entities is unexplained, a client interview is presented as a condition of dispatch, or you are called an independent contractor but told to follow the client manager’s schedule and directions. These are prompts to verify the facts, not standalone proof of illegality.
If the offer is for labor dispatch
If you are hired as a dispatch employee, use MHLW’s worker-facing checklist to verify the arrangement and documents. Its checklist asks workers to check the provider’s required permission or notification and relevant number; whether dispatch status was explained and agreed to where applicable; whether written labor terms and assignment conditions were provided; whether actual work matches those conditions; and whether employment, health, and pension insurance enrollment is confirmed or a concrete reason for non-enrollment is given. It also flags client-side pre-assignment interviews and résumé submissions for workers to check in the context of applicable rules—not as automatic proof that an offer is unlawful. See MHLW’s checklist for working as a dispatched worker.
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MHLW’s guidance on employment conditions says dispatch providers must make specified employment and treatment information available. Depending on the employment and assignment circumstances, this includes expected pay, social-insurance matters, other treatment, expected schedule and location, assignment period, training and welfare, and relevant treatment and complaint-handling information. Consult the current MHLW explanation of employment conditions to be stated at hiring for applicable details rather than relying on an informal universal template.
When to get help
Official examples are useful for identifying questions and warning signs, but classification depends on the facts and the applicable standard. If the written terms and actual directions conflict, or you cannot establish who employs and manages you, consider asking a prefectural labor bureau or a qualified professional to review the specific documents and arrangement. MHLW also publishes a 37号告示 question-and-answer collection related to the standard.
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