This section is based on a summary of real experience living in Japan and job hunting here. It's intended for informational reference only and does not constitute legal advice, guidance on handling labor disputes, or professional advice on visas or residence status. Hiring practices, labor regulations, and administrative systems can vary over time, by industry, and by company size — for your specific situation, please rely on your employer's written statements, your employment contract, or the advice of a qualified lawyer or labor and social security attorney (sharoushi). If any content here is outdated or inaccurate, we welcome feedback and will keep it updated.
"Fixed overtime pay" (固定残業代, also called みなし残業代) is an extremely common salary concept in Japanese job postings, and one of the things foreign job seekers most often overlook or misunderstand. It's a legitimate salary structure on its own — the risk is finding out after you've joined that the actual situation doesn't match what you assumed.
In simple terms, fixed overtime pay means the company bundles a set number of overtime hours' worth of pay into your monthly salary in advance. As long as your actual overtime that month doesn't exceed the agreed cap, you're paid the same fixed amount regardless of exactly how many hours you worked, with no separate settlement. For example, "monthly salary ¥300,000 (including ¥50,000 / 45 hours of fixed overtime pay)" means that ¥300,000 already includes the overtime pay corresponding to 45 hours of overtime.
This structure itself is recognized under Japan's Labor Standards Act, but two conditions have to be met: the company must clearly state exactly how many hours and how much money the fixed overtime pay corresponds to (a vague total isn't enough), and the company is still obligated to pay extra for any overtime beyond that agreed amount. If either of these isn't clearly stated in the employment contract or workplace rules, that's a non-compliant arrangement.
The first misunderstanding is reading "45 hours of fixed overtime" as "the company requires me to work 45 hours of overtime every month." In reality, this is just how the salary is calculated, not a mandatory overtime quota — if you work less overtime or none at all, the fixed overtime pay is, in principle, still paid in full.
The second misunderstanding is assuming "since overtime pay is already baked into my salary, working more overtime gets me nothing extra." This is incorrect — once you exceed the agreed cap, the company still has to pay you separately for the excess. If a company uses "your salary already includes overtime" as a justification for regularly demanding unpaid overtime beyond that cap, that itself is a violation of the Labor Standards Act.
You can directly and politely confirm a few specific things: exactly how many hours the fixed overtime pay corresponds to (20 hours versus 45 hours makes a huge difference); whether any overtime beyond that gets paid separately, and what the settlement method and cycle look like; and whether the fixed overtime pay amount is included in the "monthly salary" total shown in the posting, or listed separately.
None of this comes across as "not trusting the employer." In Japanese workplaces, proactively confirming the details of a salary structure is a completely normal right for job seekers, and most legitimate companies' HR staff can answer clearly. If an employer is evasive on this point and won't give you specific hours or a clear settlement method, that itself is a signal worth taking seriously.
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