How to apply for 労災 (Rosai) in Japan

What is 労災(Rosai)?

Workers’ Accident Compensation Insurance (or 労災 Rosai) is designed to protect workers and their bereaved families in the event that they are injured or become ill due to work-related reasons or commuting. As we explained in another article, all employees including part-time workers are required to enroll in Workers’ accident compensation insurance.

When employees get injured or become ill due to industrial accident, they can apply for workers’ compensation called 労災 (Rosai) .

It is really important for employees to know about this compensation because it covers not only their medical expense but also about 80% of salary while they can’t work.

In addition, employees can receive many other benefits as Rosai including Injury and Disease Compensation Pension and Disability Compensation Benefit.

 

The situation where employees can receive Rosai

In general, you can receive Rosai in following situations:

1. Employees get injured because of accidents occurred while they are working.
2. Employees are involved in accidents while commuting to and from work (Commuting Accident). 
3. Brain or heard diseases of employees are caused by overload in the workplace.
4. Mental disorders of employees are caused by harassments in workplace.

About Commuting Accidents

If workers deviate from their commuting routes, during such deviations and thereafter are not treated as commuting. However, if such deviation is necessary for daily life (such as purchasing food or daily necessities at super market) and you get back to the normal route soon after such deviation, the injury occurred during the travel can be qualified as Commuting Accidents.

Illnesses caused by Duty

Compared to Injuries, it is sometimes difficult to judge whether illnesses were caused by duty or not. Because diseases can be caused by many factors other than working, such as aging or underlying condition.

So, to be qualified as Industrial Accidents, workers need to medically prove that they are exposed to harmful factors in your work and it caused their disease.

To claim for compensation of medical expense, the designated claim form must be submitted to the Labor Standards Inspection Office.

The form and procedures vary depending on whether the medical institution where you receive treatment is a hospital designated for Industrial Accidents Compensation Insurance(“Designated Medical Facilities”) or not.

 

There are total 32 of such Designated Medical Facilities nationwide. Designated Medical Facilities can be searched by location or medical specialty on the website of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

In Designated Medical Facilities, employees basically don’t need to pay medical expenses to receive treatment for injury or disease caused by duty.

On the other hand, if the medical institution where you received medical treatment is not one of Designated Medical Facilities, you temporarily need to pay full amount of medical treatment expenses.  The expenses will be compensated after examination by labor standard inspection office has been completed.

Since health insurance cannot be used for industrial accidents, medical expense could be very expensive. So it is advisable to go to the Designated Medical Facilities.

When an employee is absent from work for medical treatment due to an industrial accident, the employer pays 60% of the employee’s salary for the first three days.

Then, from the fourth day, you are entitled to receive 60% of salary as Temporally Absence Compensation Benefit and 20% of salary as Absent Special Benefit. To receive these benefits you need to submit a designated claim form  to the chief of the Labor Standards Inspection Office.

When companies are not supportive

Unfortunately, employers often fail to sufficiently explain about Rosai to non-Japanese workers, because it’s not easy for them to explain the concept and procedures of Rosai in foreign languages. Actually, many employers of small or medium size enterprises lack proper understanding about Rosai.

In worse case, employers try to hide occurrence of industrial accident in order to avoid investigation by Labor Standard Inspection Office (although it is ILLEGAL!!!)

To apply for Rosai, a certificate of absence issued by a employer is necessary. However, employees can apply for it without such certificate if their employers refuse to cooperate with them.  In such case, please consult with Labor Standard Inspection Office and ask how to apply yourself.

For more details, please refer to Brochure about Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance for foreign workers issued by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.