Effective utilization of human resources is instrumental to companies’ overall success. And, with the robust compliance with labor laws becoming the norm, people in charge of companies’ labor-related issues, are making every effort to establish more productive but less stressful working environment for all employees. This is particularly challenging in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic during which time companies had to deal with unprecedented changes in employees’ working conditions, such as digitalization and remote working.

With the foregoing as a background, Chuo Sogo Law Office has decided to embark upon a series of articles entitled the Labor Law Series in which selected labor-related issues, not only the typical or well-known but also new or controversial ones will be presented in a more or less comprehensive manner.

In this first publication of the Labor Law Series, we will consider: the legal nature of a “naitei,” or a traditional pre-employment notice commonly issued as a tentative job offer by Japanese companies (“Preliminary Notice”); at which point in time a labor contract is considered to become legally binding; and the situations in which a withdrawal of a Preliminary Notice is acceptable.