A Japanese town has been ordered to pay almost 11m yen (£57,000) in overtime to public servants compelled to start work five minutes early each day.
On 26 February 2021, all 146 government employees in Ginan town, in Gifu prefecture on the Honshu island, were directed to start clocking in at 8.25am, five minutes earlier than the standard start time, the South China Morning Post reported. The directive, issued by then mayor Hideo Kojima, reportedly came into effect on 1 March that year.
Kojima, who took over as mayor in late 2020, was known for having a strict management style. He resigned in 2023 after an investigation found he had committed 99 acts of sexual harassment against employees.
He denied the allegations even though some of the incidents had reportedly been witnessed by other people. "I didn't do it," he said in televised comments. "The report lacks neutrality, and I want them to investigate more carefully."
The Asahi Shimbun reported that Kojima would get unduly angry at employees he didn't like and regularly threatened them with "disciplinary action" and "dismissal".
After his resignation in 2023, the early clock-in policy was discontinued.
The employees, however, maintained that the additional five minutes per day they had worked all those years should qualify as overtime and lodged a formal complaint with the Japan Fair Trade Commission, seeking compensation for the three-year period during which the policy was enforced.
In November 2024, the commission ruled in favour of the employees and ordered the town to pay them more than 10.9m yen (£56,581) in compensation.
On 28 February 2025, a supplementary budget proposal addressing the compensation issue was presented to the town's assembly.
The payment is yet to be disbursed, the SCMP reported.
The case has sparked intense debate among Japanese netizens, not least because Japan has long grappled with the problem of "karoshi" -- death from overwork -- which underscores the serious consequences of excessive working hours.
"In the company I work for there is a mandatory 10-minute meeting during the noon break every day. I think this is obviously illegal. Should we also talk to the Fair Trade Commission?" one person commented online according to the SCMP.
"Some companies want employees to have morning meetings, clean up the office, and even do exercises before starting work, but they are all overtime under the law," said another.
The Japanese government last year launched a "work style reform" campaign promoting shorter hours and other flexible arrangements as well as overtime limits and paid annual leave in an effort to encourage citizens to have a better work-life balance.
"By realising a society in which workers can choose from a variety of working styles based on their circumstances, we aim to create a virtuous cycle of growth and distribution and enable each and every worker to have a better outlook for the future," a government website says about the "hatarakikata kaikaku" campaign, which translates to "innovating how we work"