Supplementary Explanations

7.1 Occupational safety
Occupational safety risk refers to the potential risk of health problems and accidents that occur during work, due to factors such as electricity or other energy, fire, vehicles or moving objects, floors that are slippery or contain tripping hazards, and falling objects.
It is necessary to identify safety hazards in the workplace and their risk of occurrence, and to implement safety measures for workers.
Reasonable steps to protect pregnant women and nursing mothers from highly hazardous conditions include avoiding risks such as lifting heavy objects, exposure to infectious diseases, exposure to lead, exposure to poisonous chemical substances, physically demanding work, exposure to radioactive substances, threats of violence, long work hours, extreme temperatures, and extreme noise.

7.2 Emergency preparedness
Emergency plans refer to, for example, emergency reporting, communication to employees, clarifying evacuation procedures, installing evacuation equipment, ensuring easily identifiable exits without obstruction, providing appropriate exit facilities, storing medical supplies for emergency, installing fire detection systems, installing fire extinguishers, fire shutters, and sprinklers, securing external communication methods, and maintaining recovery plans. Dissemination of emergency plans within the workplace is also necessary. This involves, for example, providing emergency training (including evacuation drills) to workers and placing/ posting emergency procedure manuals in the workplace in an easily accessible location.

7.3 Occupational injuries and illnesses
It is necessary to record occupational injury and worker illness, provide necessary medical treatment, investigate cases, identify and eliminate causes, implement corrective actions, including preventing, managing and reporting.
“Appropriate countermeasures” refer to systems and measures for promoting worker's reporting, classifying, and recording injury and illnesses, providing medical treatment when necessary, investigating injury and illnesses, implementing corrective actions to eliminate the causes, and facilitating workers’ return to work.
It also includes implementing the required administrative procedures stipulated by the law and taking out industrial accident insurance.

7.4 Industrial hygiene
Hazardous agents include substances that are poisonous, radioactive, or cause chronic illness (such as lead and asbestos). These substances may exist in smoke, steam, mist, or dust form. Noise and odors may be deemed hazardous to the human body if they are significantly strong.
Appropriate management of these matters refers to establishing and implementing management standards, and providing the appropriate training and personal protective equipment to workers.

7.5 Physically demanding work
Physically demanding work includes long hours of work in an unnatural position, long hours of repetitive or continuous work such as data entry or assembly work that causes physical exertion, and heavy labor such as the manual handling of heavy raw materials or manual transport of heavy objects.
Appropriate management includes providing working conditions based on ergonomics, providing regular breaks, providing supportive tools, and encouraging sharing and cooperation of work among multiple workers.

7.6 Protecting workers from machinery
Appropriate safeguards include management to prevent injuries and accidents from occurring during work; using safety mechanisms such as fail-safe, foolproof, interlock, and tagout; and setting up protective barriers, as well as regular inspection and maintenance of machinery.

Fail-safe: A device or system designed for safe operation even in the event of failure, malfunction, or erroneous operation
Foolproof: A system that prevents dangerous situations from occurring even under erroneous operation
Interlock: A mechanism that prevents other operations from being performed unless certain conditions are met
Tagout: Installation of a tag showing that operation is prohibited to prevent unlocking due to human error

7.7 Sanitary facilities, meals, and housing
Maintaining health and safety involves maintaining the cleanliness and sanitation of facilities, and requires that the following points be considered.

• Drinking water: water quality tests compliant with laws and regulations, and safe drinking water (provided by a water cooler, etc.)
• Sanitary food preparation: cleanliness of clothing and health checks for kitchen workers, pest control, temperature control of food storage, valid cafeteria business licenses, etc.
• Toilets: clean toilet facilities in sufficient number, provision of toilet paper, etc.
• Dormitories: fire response plan, emergency exit routes (egress), secured accommodations for storing personal items (providing lockable storage), adequate living space, ventilation, temperature control, adequate lighting, etc.

7.8 Health and safety communication
It is necessary to provide appropriate workplace health and safety information and training regarding all the workplace hazards that workers will be exposed to (including but not limited to machinery, electricity, chemicals, fire, and physical hazards).
Occupational health and safety information should be clearly posted in facilities or placed in a location that can be seen by workers. It also must be provided in a language that the workers can understand. Training must be provided to all workers before starting work and regularly thereafter.
Workers should be encouraged to raise safety concerns. Topics for training include the correct use of personal protective equipment, emergency response measures, safe operation of machinery, and preparations before entering hazardous environments.

7.9 Employee health management
Appropriate health management refers to conducting health checks at least at the level stipulated by law, and working to prevent and quickly detect worker illnesses.
It is also necessary to adequately consider treatment such as mental health care and the prevention of health problems due to overwork.

7.10 Reform of work methods and achievement of work-life balance
The Japanese government’s Cabinet Office issued a “Work-Life Balance Charter” that states, “Now is the time to aspire for harmony between work and life throughout all of society, with the aim of allowing everyone to work with a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction and to meet their job responsibilities while also leading a healthy and abundant life, with time for child-rearing and nursing care as well as personal time for family, community activities, and self-development.”
In addition, the Cabinet Office's Action Guidelines to Promote the Work-life Balance lists three specific conditions that must be met for a “society that has achieved a good work-life balance”:

• A society where economic independence through work is possible
• A society where time can be secured for healthy, abundant lives
• A society where choosing a variety of ways of working and living is possible