Did the novel coronavirus cause your company to fail ? Did you get more unequal treatment than your Japanese colleagues did, just because you are a foreign national? It is illegal.

According to an announcement from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (厚生労働省 : Kousei Roudou Sho) , company managers must treat all employees equally regardless of their nationalities. Below are the examples where you are supposed to be treated as your Japanese colleagues(UPDATE on 2/22: Words highlighted in red have been added according to the website of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare):

• When companies demand their employees that they take days off from work, companies must pay leave allowance (holiday pay while on furlough, 休業手当 : Kyugyou-Teate) to foreign employees as well as to Japanese employees. 
• When schools are closed and you should take days off to look after your child/children, or when you want to take days off for personal reasons, you are eligible for annual paid leave (年次有給休暇 : Nenji Yukyu Kyuka). Also, if your company has a unique vacation system, you can take days off accordingly.
• Companies can apply for government subsidies (助成金 : Josei Kin) so that they can maintain employment; they can make use of these subsidies not only for Japanese but also for foreign nationals. 
• Companies are not allowed to lay off employees at their own will. When they terminate contracts of foreign nationals, they must apply exactly the same rules as the time when they terminate Japanese employees.

If you get unfair treatment or have any trouble at work, you can consult a labour bureau (労働局 : Roudou Kyoku), a labour standards supervision office (労働基準監督署 : Roudou Kijun Kantoku Syo) or a public employment security office (ハローワーク : Hello Work) near you.

When you go through hard times at work and don’t know where to consult, you should contact a labour bureau.

When you want to know how to receive leave allowance (holiday pay), how to take annual paid leave, rules regarding dismissal, and other labor conditions (e.g. wages, working hours etc.), you should consult a labour standards supervision offices.

When you want to know how to job-hunt and how to receive employment insurance benefits after dismissal, you should contact a public employment security office.

Before contacting a labour bureau or a labour standards supervision office, please make a phone call to “Telephone Consultation Service for Foreign Workers (外国人労働者向け相談ダイヤル : Gaikokujin Roudousya Muke Soudan Dial, contact information below)” or “Labour Standards Advice Hotline (労働条件相談ほっとライン : Roudou Joken Soudan Hotline, contact information below)”. Multilingual staffs will listen to you; they give you advice based on related laws and regulations; you will also know where to contact next. You can also contact your local labour bureau or labour standards supervision office directly, if you already know where it is near you.

If you want to consult Hello Work, please check out this article. Contact information of multilingual help desks is included.

Telephone Consultation Service for Foreign Workers 

This is the multilingual help desk set up by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Staff will listen to your problems surrounding working conditions ; you can get advice based on related laws and regulations; the staff also show you agencies to contact next.

Calling fees apply; you’ll be charged 8.5 yen (including tax) per 3 minutes from landlines, and 10 yen (including tax) per 3 minutes from mobile phones. 

※Closed from December 29th to January 3rd.

※Due to the spread of coronavirus, followed by increase in the number of inquiries and decrease in the number of operators, please know that some part of this service may be unavailable. If you cannot reach any operator, please call back later.

UPDATE on 2/22: Available days have been revised.

Languages	Available Days	Opening Hours	Phone Number
English	Monday to Friday	10:00 a.m. to        3:00 p.m. (closed between noon to 1:00 p.m.)	0570-001701
Chinese			0570-001702
Portugeuse			0570-001703
Spanish			0570-001704
Tagalog			0570-001705
Vietnamese			0570-001706
Burmese	Monday		0570-001707
Nepalese	Tuesday Wednesday Thursday		0570-001708
Korean	Thursday Friday		0570-001709
Thai	Wednesday		0570-001712
Indonesian			0570-001715
Khmer			0570-001716
Mongolian	Friday		0570-001718

Labour Standards Advice Hotline

This is the multilingual help desk outsourced by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to a private company. It is open when you cannot reach “Telephone Consultation Service for Foreign Workers”, after labour bureaus and labour standards supervision offices are closed, and on Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays. 

Staff will listen to your problems with working conditions ; you can get advice based on related laws and regulations; the staff also show you agencies to contact next.  

※Accessible from landlines and mobile phones without calling fee from anywhere in Japan. 

※Closed from December 29th to January 3rd.

Update on 5/11：Now operated in 14 languages. Almost all the phone numbers have been changed.

Languages	Available Days	Opening Hours	Phone Number
Japanese	Monday to Sunday (Everyday)	Monday to Friday 5:00 p.m.〜10:00 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and national holidays 9:00 a.m.〜9:00 p.m.	0120-811-610
English			0120-531-401
Chinese			0120-531-402
Portuguese			0120-531-403
Spanish	Tuesday, Thursday, Friday,Saturday		0120-531-404
Tagalog	Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday		0120-531-405
Vietnamese	Wednesday, Friday, Saturday		0120-531-406
Burmese	Wednesday, Sunday		0120-531-407
Nepalese			0120-531-408
Korean	Thursday, Sunday		0120-613-801
Thai			0120-613-802
Indonesian			0120-613-803
Khmer	Monday, Saturday		0120-613-804
Mongolian			0120-613-805

You can also directly consult labour bureaus or labour standards supervision offices near you

In Tokyo (東京都), Kanagawa (神奈川県), Saitama (埼玉県) and Chiba (千葉県), some labour bureaus offer multilingual consultation services. These phone numbers go straight to ”Foreign workers consultation desk”.

Update on 2/22: Available days and opening hours have been revised.

Update on 2/22: Shinagawa Labour Standards Supervision Office has been added to <Tokyo>.

Clicking on the links below, you can check where consultation desk near you is on Google map.

However, in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, please call them to make an appointment before visiting consultation desks.

Tokyo

Kanagawa

Venue	Languages	Days Available	Opening Hours	Phone Number
Kanagawa Labour Bureau Supervision Office（神奈川労働局監督課）(8th floor of the building)	English	Monday, The 1st and 3rd Friday	9a.m.～4p.m.（12 p.m.～1p.m. Break time）	045-211-7351
	Spanish	Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
	Portuguese	Wednesday, Friday
	Vietnamese	Wednesday
	Tagalog	Thursday
Atsugi Labour Standards Supervision Office（厚木労働基準監督署） (5th floor of the building)	Spanish	Monday, Wednesday, Friday	9:30 a.m. ～ 5:00 p.m.（12 p.m. ～1 p.m. Break time）	046-401-1641
	Portuguese

Saitama

Chiba

Venue	Languages	Days Available	Opening Hours	Phone Number
Chiba Labour Bureau Inspection Division （千葉労働局監督課）	English	Tuesday Thursday	9:30 a.m. ～ 5:00 p.m. （12 p.m. ～1 p.m. Break time）	043-221-2304
Funabashi Labour Standards Supervision Office （船橋労働基準監督署）	Chinese	Monday Thursday		047-431-0182
Kashiwa Labour Standards Supervision Office （柏労働基準監督署）	Chinese	Wednesday Friday		04-7163-0246
	Vietnamese	Tuesday Thursday

You can check detailed information on the websites below:

For Foreigners Working in Companies – Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
Counseling Services and Hotlines in Foreign Languages – Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare