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Japan Designates November as 'Shiwayose' Prevention Campaign Month for Small Business Workers

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, with the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency and Fair Trade Commission, is running a month-long campaign to stop large firms from shifting workload burdens onto subcontractors.

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Key Points

  • • November is designated as 'Shiwayose' Prevention Campaign Month by Japan's labor ministry, SME agency, and FTC
  • • Campaign targets unfair burden-shifting onto small subcontractors from short-notice orders and tight deadlines
  • • Prefectural labor bureaus will visit large companies suspected of causing such pressure
  • • Ministry will use posters, a dedicated website, and ads to raise awareness

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced that November will be designated as "'Shiwayose' Prevention Campaign Month," a coordinated effort with the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency and the Fair Trade Commission to raise awareness about unfair pressure placed on small and medium-sized business partners [1]. The term "shiwayose" refers to the way work-style reform efforts at large companies—such as cutting long working hours—can end up pushing burdens onto smaller contractors, including short-notice orders, sudden specification changes, and inadequate compensation for added costs [1].

According to the ministry, this kind of pressure also arises from other trade practices, such as private construction clients setting overly short project deadlines, or shippers requiring long, routine waiting times for loading and unloading [1]. The campaign is intended to help small and medium-sized enterprises carry out their own work-style reforms without being squeezed by the demands of larger business partners [1].

As part of the campaign, the ministry said it will post awareness posters and leaflets, update a dedicated "shiwayose" prevention website, and run internet advertisements [1]. It will also ask relevant government ministries, prefectural governments, and labor and management organizations to cooperate in spreading the message [1]. In addition, prefectural labor bureaus will conduct intensive outreach, including visiting large companies suspected of causing "shiwayose" effects and requesting that they take corrective action [1].

The ministry said it will continue this campaign and other related initiatives going forward to build an environment in which small and medium-sized business partners are not subjected to unfair burden-shifting [1].

Readers wanting more detail on specific protections, complaint procedures, or which industries are targeted should consult the ministry's dedicated "shiwayose" prevention website and the official PDF notice, as the source material does not specify further procedural details [1].

Source credit 出典：「11月は「『しわ寄せ』防止キャンペーン月間」です」（厚生労働省）（https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/newpage_76722.html）、PDL1.0（https://www.digital.go.jp/resources/open_data/public_data_license_v1.0）を加工してJapan News (j.apan.news)が作成 This article is Japan News's own English summary of the Japanese original. It has been translated and edited by Japan News; it is not an official translation, and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare did not write or review it.

Sources

This article was written by AI from these Japanese-language reports. Check them before acting on anything here.

  1. [1] Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare — original report (Japanese)

AI-written summary of Japanese reports; not human-reviewed; check the linked sources. How we write articles