The Japanese Health and Labour Ministry has announced that it will conduct the first ever national inquiry into sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination at the workplace. The Ministry stated that over Labour Standards offices nationwide received over 6000 complaints related to sexual harassment and over 3000 related to pregnancy discrimination, in the year of 2013 – however the Ministry believes that this is “but the tip of the iceberg”. The investigation will include sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination against irregular employees, and any sanctions taken against employees in such situations. The Supreme Court ruled in October 2014 that employees could not be demoted for having gone on maternity leave.  

[Summary by Business and Human Rights Resource Centre of Japanese language articles]