2021 Volume 70 Issue 1 Pages 54-60
“The Work Style Reform Bill” was enacted on June 29, 2018, with proposed amendments to eight laws, including the Labor Standards Act. Since April 1, 2020, the bill has been applied to all cases except a few professionals including physicians, considering their current long working hours. The special committees on physicians' labor reform under the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare have reported that, behind the long working hours, aside from the issues of organizational management, there are additional issues, including insufficient functional differentiation/cooperation in the regional medical care provision system. The committees proposed three levels of overtime depending on the conditions of the individual physician and institution's roles in a community, which should be applied by 2024.
