Japan Gender Pay Gap Reporting: What You Need to Know

To find the full text of the global pay reporting law in Japan, refer to Japan’s Act on the Promotion of Female Participation and Career Advancement in the Workplace.

The requirement in Japan focuses primarily on gender. The reporting requirements and metrics are designed to assess and address the gender pay gaps within organizations. 

While the law doesn’t explicitly require reporting on race/ethnicity pay gaps, many organizations analyze race and ethnicity gaps as well as part of their pay transparency strategy, where it is permitted by law. 

Syndio’s PayEQ solution allows you to analyze pay equity and opportunity gaps across multiple dimensions, including race, gender, ethnicity, age, disability, and more. This provides a comprehensive understanding of how different groups are affected by your policies and practices.

No. In Japan, only employers with 101 or more employees are required to file an Action Plan, with additional requirements to report pay gaps for employers with 301 or more employees.

In Japan’s pay gap report, all employees should be included in the report. Syndio provides Global Pay Reports customers with detailed guidance on which employees to include.

For the pay gap report in Japan, the figures are only reported by overall gender, and by job type. The earnings of individual employees are not published.

For the pay gap report in Japan, the definition of pay includes the total amount of salary and allowances, with some optional exclusions. Syndio provides Global Pay Reports customers with detailed guidance on which employees are excluded.

Syndio provides software and expert professional services to help multinational organisations comply with pay equity, pay reporting, and pay transparency regulations. Syndio helps you analyze, remediate, explain, and report on gaps so you can stay on top of compliance in Japan. Learn more: https://synd.io/global-pay-reporting/.

The law in Japan analyzes pay gaps, not pay equity. What’s the difference? 

An unadjusted pay gap (also called an “uncontrolled pay gap”) is the difference between the median or mean pay of two groups, such as men and women.

• Median pay gap: Imagine lining up all the earnings for two groups of employees (e.g., men and women) from lowest to highest. The median pay gap is the difference between the middle earnings in each line. It’s a good indicator of typical pay differences.
• Mean pay gap: This compares the average earnings of each group. However, it can be skewed by extremely high or low earners.

Pay equity, or the adjusted pay gap, accounts for factors that can legitimately explain differences in pay, such as performance ratings, tenure with the company, or location.

The median and mean pay gaps provide valuable insights, but they don’t tell the whole story. There may be legitimate reasons for pay differences between employees. The adjusted pay gap (pay equity) accounts for these factors, revealing whether a pay disparity truly exists (which is unlawful in many countries) so you can take corrective action. Syndio’s PayEQ software is the trusted solution for global enterprises to rapidly identify, address, and prevent pay disparities.