Changes to annual leave laws?
Our 13 employee company is updating the work rules to follow recent changes to the law, as I understand it. I'm being told that we must use 5 days of annual leave per year, or the company can specify 5 days for any individual employee who doesn't take any. That seems fine, but the nuance is that those 5 days must come from the pool of annual leave received for that year. Which means, you cannot roll over 100% of your annual leave to a second year any more. Many people typically get their 20 new days, and use 20 days throughout the year, and keep rolling over 20 days, always using from the "older" pool of days, but I'm being told this is no longer legal. Has anybody else had similar changes in their company rules recently?
27 comments · 55% upvoted · other discussions
This has been the law for a long time. Full time employees must take at least 5 days of annual leave per year. The company is obligated to enforce it. It is to protect against employees being power harassed into never using annual leave.
https://www.tokhimo.com/post/how-annual-leave-in-japan-work-1
Mercenarian 14 points · Dec 2025 · 九州・長崎県
Yeah I was going to say it’s been at least 3 years since it’s been like that since at least I started my seishain job.
But yeah that’s it, you must use 5 days per year so no you can’t roll over 100% of them. The company will start getting on the employees butts to take their paid leave if it’s almost April and they still have days left.
Ark42 [OP] 4 points · Dec 2025 · 関東・東京都
If I take 20 days off each year, but get 20 more each year, my balance normally goes from 20 up to 40, then slowly back down to 20 over the year. I'm always using "last years" pool and banking the full 20 each year "just in case" and I suspect a lot of other people do this as well.
Mercenarian 1 points · Dec 2025 · 九州・長崎県
Okay but you’re supposed to be using them before the year is up. If you join a company in April 2025 and get 12 paid days off you’re supposed to use 5 before April 2026. So if you got 13 days off added in April 2026 the maximum you would be able to have at that point is 20 days (12-5+13). If you have 21-25 days then you messed up and you didn’t use 5 days like you were supposed to
Ark42 [OP] 1 points · Dec 2025 · 関東・東京都
Don't focus on new hires so much, I think. It still works out just fine though, if you just follow through into the 2nd and 3rd years...
But to your example, if you get 12, use 5, roll over 7, then get 13 more, you have 20 (7+13) now. If you take 5 days off in the second year, you're left with 15, but is is 2+13 or 7+8? Pretty sure the obvious answer is 2+13, you should always use the older pool first, and those 2 days are still going to expire when you get the 14 more for the next year. My company seems confused by this 2019 law and wants to update our work rules so that you'd have 7+8 at this point, and need to take a further 7 days off to avoid them expiring, when you get 14 new days, leaving you with 8+14 at the start of your 3rd year, instead of 13+14.