Japan's 1947 Labor Standards Act bans women from underground work

Japan's Labor Standards Act was passed in 1947, during the Allied occupation, as part of postwar reforms that set minimum conditions for workers. It covered working hours, wages, rest periods and safety, and it replaced a patchwork of earlier rules such as the prewar Factory Act.

Among its provisions was a ban on women working underground. The restriction applied to mining and, under later rules, to other below-ground jobs such as tunnelling. Lawmakers justified it as protection: underground work was seen as physically punishing and hazardous, with risks of cave-ins, gas and dust. Women were also covered by wider protective rules, including limits on night work and heavy labour.

The ban reflected the thinking of its time, which treated women mainly as workers needing special protection, particularly with motherhood in mind. Over the following decades, critics argued that such rules shut women out of well-paid trades and reinforced unequal treatment. Japan loosened many protective limits after the Equal Employment Opportunity Law of 1985, and later revisions narrowed the underground restrictions. The 1947 rule remains the starting point for today's debate over women in tunnel and blasting work.