Yoshiharu Toya
Current Position/Title: Professor
Institutional Affiliation: Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, University of Ryukyus
Email: ytoya@hs.u-ryukyu.ac.jp
Webpage: https://researchmap.jp/yoshiharutoya
Host Scholar: Sieh-Chuen Huang, Professor
Hosting Department/Institution: College of Law, National Taiwan University
Biography: Yoshiharu Toya is a professor at the University of the Ryukyus (Okinawa, Japan). His research and teaching focus on labor and employment law, with particular emphasis on labor relations in the context of employer insolvency and corporate restructuring.
Lecture [1]:
Date ＆ Time: 17:30-18:30, September 19, 2025
Venue: The 1st Conference Room (1710), Tsai Lecture Hall, National Taiwan University
Title: An Introduction to Japanese Labor Law
Abstract: Japan’s labor and employment law emerged under the strong influence of the United States during the post–World War II occupation, but has since evolved in distinctive ways within the framework of the postwar Japanese employment system. In recent years, structural shifts—such as long working hours and karoshi (death from overwork), the expansion of non-regular employment, and increased job mobility even among regular employees—have made legal reform and reinterpretation increasingly necessary. This lecture outlines the basic structure of Japanese labor and employment law and examines several pressing contemporary issues, with attention to how the legal framework is adapting to these developments.
[The lecture will be conducted in Japanese with interpretation.]
Lecture [2]:
Date ＆ Time: 19:00 – 21:00, 27 November 2025
Venue: Tsai Lecture Hall 1402, College of Law, National Taiwan University
Title: Platform Workers and Labor Law: The Development of Labor Law in Japan and Its Competition with Economic Law
Abstract:
In recent years, not only in Japan and Taiwan but also across many advanced economies, work mediated through online platform services has been rapidly increasing. UBER is a typical example, where service requesters and providers connect via a platform, and labor and compensation are exchanged. Similar debates have long existed regarding freelance work—whether it should be considered a form of quasi-employment or rather independent self-employment without worker status. Platform-based work shares many of these features. However, because it necessarily involves the use of an online platform, the relationship is not simply between requester and provider, but rather a tripartite structure—requester, platform, and provider—or even more complex multi-party relations, requiring separate legal consideration.
In Japan, additional complexity arises as “the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry” and the Fair Trade Commission have begun to move toward protecting these workers as small business owners under economic law. This can be seen as an attempt to shift the role of platform worker protection away from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, which traditionally holds worker protection responsibility.
This presentation will introduce the current state of platform-based work in Japan, review the debates surrounding the concept of “worker,” and examine the ongoing discussions about the legal protection of platform workers.
[The lecture will be conducted in Japanese with interpretation.]