Japan’s Fourth-Phase Basic Plan to Promote Cancer Control Program focuses on the promotion of cancer control in the workplace, especially cancer screening, and one of the challenges is how to improve the screening rate and the diagnostic follow-up rate. However, under the current system, cancer screening is to be performed at the discretion of employers. In addition, concerning the proper handling of health information, such as cancer screening results, in the light of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, labor law, and other laws, a consensus is not always reached. For this reason, this paper discusses the current situation of cancer screening in the workplace and presents issues and directions for solving problems under the current legal system, focusing on the handling of health information.

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Plaintiff X, who worked as an outpatient nurse at a hospital run by Defendant Y1, was absent from work due to mental illness. After refusing to have an interview with an occupational physician for returning to work, Plaintiff X was not permitted to return to work and put on administrative leave (non-disciplinary suspension to ensure the work efficiency of officials). The trial was fought out on the issue of whether or not the administrative leave order was valid. This paper is based on the judgment of the Chiba District Court on December 8, 2017 (Labor Economy Court Precedent Preliminary Report. No.2340).

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This paper is an introduction to a report prepared by a project of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), published in May 2021. The report focuses on ensuring compliance with occupational safety and health (OSH) regulations in the EU member states, and includes a comprehensive literature review of social norms, social reporting, corporate social responsibility, economic incentives, the role of supply chain relation, external preventive services for OSH in EU member states, and new initiatives of OSH regulatory authorities. The report shows that each country, led by its regulatory authorities, has been trying to reduce work-related deaths, injuries, and illnesses by ensuring and promoting compliance and better OSH practices in the context their problem situations and historical backgrounds, and that the report also clarifies that issues have emerged in the process need to be examined in the future.

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This paper outlines the new chemical hazard control system under the Industrial Safety and Health Act. Current chemical hazard control covers a limited number of chemicals, and prescribes detailed measures by special regulations. On the other hand, the novel approach covers all hazardous chemical substances and requires employers to conduct a risk assessment and take necessary exposure control measures based on the results to minimize the exposure of their employees to chemical substances. The novel approach aims to prevent chemical hazard at work complehensively.

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This paper focuses on the appeal court case for an incident where X, a former employee of Y1, was forced to work long hours by his supervisor, Y2, when he was at Y1 and was reprimanded and harassed by Y2. X suffered from depression, etc., and was forced to take a leave of absence and resign from his job. Consequently, X brought a claim for damages (Tokyo High Court decision, November 27, 2013). This paper reports the results of a multidisciplinary study on measures to prevent and respond to the incident.

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