(1) PURPOSE OF THE LAW AND SYSTEM
The objective of this law is, together with the Employment Measures Law, to contribute to the security of employment and the progress of the national economy by providing job opportunity for every person suited to his or her ability, and thereby meet the labour needs of industries, with having Public Employment Security Offices and other public employment security bodies offer employment placement services in cooperation with the related administrative agencies and organizations, and with securing appropriate operations of employment placement agencies other than public employment securities bodies in due consideration of their roles for the proper and smooth adjustment of the labour force.

(2) OUTLINE OF THE LAW AND SYSTEM
The Law prescribes definitions of employment placement (Article 4), Cooperation between public employment security bodies and employment placement agencies (Article 5-2), employment placement of students (Articles 26 to 28), and permission and registration of both charged and free employment placement services (Articles 30 to35), etc.

(3) CABINET ORDER AND MINISTERIAL ORDINANCES
Enforcement Order of the Employment Security Law
Enforcement Regulations of the Employment Security Law

(4) OUTLINE OF THE CONTROL
1) Items Covered
Charged employment placement services, etc.

2) Outline of Specifications, Standards and Inspections, etc.
i. Content of the control
Any person who intends to carry out charged employment placement services shall obtain permission from the Minister of Health,Labour and Welfare (Article 30).
Any charged employment placement agency shall not introduce to job seekers port transportation, construction and other occupations designated in administrative ordinances of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Paragraph 1 of Article 32-11-1).
Charged employment placement agencies shall not collect fee from job seekers in principle (Article 32-3), however, this shall not apply to the cases prescribed in the ordinance of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, where fee collection is necessary for the benefits of job seekers (Paragraph 2 of Article 32-3).

ii. Permission
In granting permission to charged employment placement agency, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare shall issue licence in accordance with the ordinance of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (Article 32-4).
The term of validity of the permission shall be three years for new license and five years for renewal(Article 32-6).

(5) HIGHLIGHTS OF THE RECENT AMENDMENT
The provision on the scope of charged employment placement services was expanded in 1997, replacing what was formerly provided as a list of allowed jobs against general prohibition to a list of jobs not allowed (thereby becoming a negative list). The Law was further amended in 1999 to reduce the prohibited jobs substantially. In March, 2003, permission for charged and free employment placement agency was changed from branch-based to agency-based approval, and in addition, the list of type of job-seekers that employment placement agencies could charge was expanded to include experienced technicians (those who retain skills of first-grade technical certifications or of equivalents and conduct operations using those technical expertise in production and other business activities). (effective March 1, 2004).

(6) REFERENCE INFORMATION
(Liaison Office for Further Information)
Employment Service Division, Employment security Bureau
Ministry of Health,Labour and Welfare
Tel: 03-5253-1111 (Ext. 5745) http://www.mhlw.go.jp