Labour dispatch, contracting and secondment: structuring foreign assignees lawfully

Eligibility requirements

• Genuine contracting requires both limbs of Notice No. 37. First, the contractor itself directs and manages its workers: instructions on how the work is performed and evaluation of it; management of working hours, breaks, holidays, leave and overtime (merely recording hours is not management); and maintenance of discipline and decisions on placement. Second, the contractor handles the work as its own business: it funds the work on its own responsibility, bears the legal responsibilities of a business operator, and either supplies its own equipment and materials (simple tools aside) or performs the work on the basis of its own planning or specialised skill, rather than supplying labour alone.
• Where the client gives day-to-day instructions to the contractor's workers, controls their hours or decides who is assigned, the arrangement is treated as dispatch regardless of the contract's title. Article 3 of the notice adds that a structure deliberately disguised to evade the Act is treated as dispatch even if it formally meets the criteria.
• Lawful dispatch runs through a business licensed under the Worker Dispatch Act, which since the 2015 amendment applies a licensing system to all dispatch businesses. Period limits apply at the receiving workplace and for the individual worker, certain sectors are prohibited, and equal-treatment rules apply to pay. The deeming provision treats illegal dispatch, including disguised contracting, as a direct employment offer from the client.
• Secondment (在籍出向) is lawful where it is not conducted as a business and serves a recognised purpose, such as career development, group personnel exchange or employment maintenance; secondment run as a profit-making supply of labour falls foul of Article 44 of the Employment Security Act.
• For a foreign assignee the immigration application names a contracting organisation and describes duties. Under Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services the dispatch agency is the contracting organisation and ISA examines the client-site duties; under Intra-company Transferee the assignee must work for the receiving group office, and placement at an unrelated client under its direction is inconsistent with the status.
• Working time at the client site is governed by the Labour Standards Act and the employer's Article 36 agreement; in a dispatch the client bears certain working-time duties, in a contract the contractor does.

Legal framework

Build the evidence

Prepare records that substantiate the relevant criteria. The final checklist depends on the applicant, route and filing authority.

• The commercial contract (業務委託 or 請負 agreement) with a statement of work defining deliverables, acceptance and pricing, rather than headcount and hours.
• The contractor's on-site management structure: named manager, instruction channel, attendance and overtime management records, evaluation process and disciplinary authority.
• Evidence of independent business: equipment, tooling, software licences, insurance and the planning or expertise the contractor brings.
• For a dispatch: the agency's licence, the dispatch contract, the client's period-limit records and the pay-comparison documentation.
• For a secondment: the secondment agreement between the two employers, the purpose, the worker's consent and the payroll and social-insurance allocation.
• The immigration file: the application's description of the contracting organisation and duties, reconciled with the structure actually operated.

How to apply

1. 01

   Classify the arrangement before anyone starts

   WG applies the Notice No. 37 criteria to the facts: who instructs, who manages hours, who assigns, who funds, who supplies the means. The answer, not the contract's title, determines whether the structure is contracting, dispatch or secondment.

2. 02

   Align the immigration application with the structure

   The contracting organisation and duties described to ISA must match the classification. A transferee under Intra-company Transferee should be working for the receiving group office; a consultant placed with clients should hold a status that fits placement, through a licensed dispatch business where the client will direct the work.

3. 03

   Document the direction channel

   For contracting, instructions flow from the contractor's manager; the client raises requirements through that manager. For dispatch, the client's instruction authority and the agency's employment responsibilities are set out in the dispatch contract.

4. 04

   Monitor the operation

   Reality drifts: a client starts emailing the assignee directly, approving leave or moving desks. Periodic review of the actual pattern, with correction, is the compliance mechanism; the labour bureau examines practice, not paperwork.

5. 05

   Handle changes as events

   A change of client, site, duties or employer may require an immigration notification within 14 days, a change-of-status application or a new dispatch contract. Treat each as a dated event with a decision record.

After approval & family planning

• Dependants' statuses are unaffected by the structure chosen, but a breach that leads to loss of the principal's status affects the whole family.
• Disguised contracting exposes the client to the deeming provision, administrative guidance and publication, and the contractor to loss of business; the assignee may find their status undermined because the real activity differs from the application.
• A properly structured assignment preserves the assignee's record for Highly Skilled Professional and permanent-residence applications, which examine the organisation and activity history.

What this route builds, and what it opens

WG assesses every route on three returns: the knowledge it adds, the cognitive capability that sustained work abroad develops, and the institutional opportunity it opens or closes. Real work is the mechanism in each case.

Programme context. Where a participant will manage a genuine function for a qualifying affiliate, the structure must place direction and employment with that affiliate; a placement directed by a third party may not be assessed as a managerial role with the affiliate. Read the framework ↗

Frequently asked questions

Points to consider

• The dispatch rules, period limits and equal-treatment requirements are detailed and have been amended several times; take Japanese labour-law advice on any placement structure.
• Group companies are not exempt: an intra-group supply of labour that is directed by the receiving company and run for profit is dispatch.