Working time law in Japan and the European Union : a comparative approach in the context of legal culture

Abstract

The present research deals with legal culture and working time in the European Union and in Japan. Working time is perceived in an extended way and research is not limited only into hours of work, but it deals also with time related to non working time, or lifetime. Thus, the effects that regulation on working time has on the time o f the employee as a whole are also considered. Time is not conceived throughout the thesis as segmented, but in its entirety. On the contrary, traditional labour law treats working time as a separate social time and often neglects the interrelation of time spent at work with other social times. Moreover, labour law regulates the time of employees under a subordinate relation with the employer and, according to the hours of employment, it measures the salary owed to the employee. Thus, working time, according to the law, entails an economic evaluation. If working time is only paid time, implicitly, all other forms of unpaid work do not constitute work according to the law. This choice reflects a value judgement, as if other forms of work, within the private sphere, for example, are deprived of the same importance.