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How to become a Labour Standards Inspector

Enters workplaces under the law and gives employers the guidance they need to comply, to protect and improve working conditions and keep workers safe and healthy.

Main tasks

Workers in this job say university is common. From job tag's survey of people in each job, who could give several answers. It shows what workers see as common, not how many workers hold each level.

How to become one

You must pass the labour standards inspector recruitment exam. You can sit it if you are aged 21 or over and under 30 on 1 April of the exam year, or under 21 on that date and a university graduate (or expected to graduate), or recognised by the National Personnel Authority as having equivalent qualifications. The exam has two categories: Labour Standards Inspection A (law and humanities) and Labour Standards Inspection B (science and engineering). After passing, you have a job interview at the prefectural labour bureau where you want to work. For the 2025 exam, about 150 people are expected to be hired in category A and about 40 in category B. After hiring, you spend a year in basic training and practical training on inspection and judicial police work at the Labour College, labour bureaus and labour standards inspection offices. You then build specialist knowledge through front-line work at an inspection office within the bureau that hired you. After that, depending on ability and aptitude, you may work as a section head or head of an inspection office and take on responsibility for managing the organisation. You need knowledge of labour standards laws and related laws in other fields. Laws change often, so you must keep learning to understand them accurately and give guidance. Persistence and concentration for the steady work of building up facts, and calm judgement based on evidence, are also important. You often deal with both employers and workers, so you need to be fair and neutral and communicate courteously.

Ways in

Pay · Job openings · AI and this job

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Questions people ask

How do I become a Labour Standards Inspector?

You must pass the labour standards inspector recruitment exam. You can sit it if you are aged 21 or over and under 30 on 1 April of the exam year, or under 21 on that date and a university graduate (or expected to graduate), or recognised by the National Personnel Authority as having equivalent qualifications. The exam has two categories: Labour Standards Inspection A (law and humanities) and Labour Standards Inspection B (science and engineering). After passing, you have a job interview at the prefectural labour bureau where you want to work. For the 2025 exam, about 150 people are expected to be hired in category A and about 40 in category B. After hiring, you spend a year in basic training and practical training on inspection and judicial police work at the Labour College, labour bureaus and labour standards inspection offices. You then build specialist knowledge through front-line work at an inspection office within the bureau that hired you. After that, depending on ability and aptitude, you may work as a section head or head of an inspection office and take on responsibility for managing the organisation. You need knowledge of labour standards laws and related laws in other fields. Laws change often, so you must keep learning to understand them accurately and give guidance. Persistence and concentration for the steady work of building up facts, and calm judgement based on evidence, are also important. You often deal with both employers and workers, so you need to be fair and neutral and communicate courteously.

Do you need a degree to become a Labour Standards Inspector?

Usually. In this job's census occupation group, 67% of workers are university graduates.

Will AI change the work of a Labour Standards Inspector?

Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Sources

独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 解説系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_description_7_01.xlsx）ver.7.01 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成

独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 簡易版数値系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_numeric_7_00.xlsx）ver.7.00 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成

Sources: JILPT Occupational Information Database download data via job tag (解説系 ver.7.01 and 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00, downloaded 4 October 2026), processed by Peernovo; MHLW, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025; Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2020 Population Census; MEXT, School Basic Survey 2025; MHLW, Employment Referrals for General Workers (Hello Work statistics). Figures processed by Peernovo. English job names, translations and the matching of jobs to statistical groups, schools and degree fields by Peernovo.

Updated 4 October 2026