Any idea what the legal Japanese language requirements are for an HRIS implementation?
Posted June 12th, 2009 by Yvan
My organization is currently deploying a new HR Systems (SAP) worldwide. The headquarter is based in the US and we are trying to deploy SAP in English as much as possible. However, we are currently facing an issue regarding language requirements in Japan. We are not sure yet if we are legally required to implement SAP HR in Japanese. We are struglling a bit to find a clear answer and would appreciate any advice and lessons learned on this topic. Thank you in advance for your help.
The answer
First of all, the organization I was refering to is a US Private multinational with
one of its subsidiary in Japan. This subsidiary is a fully integrated
entity in Japan, registered in Japan.
I have actually got an answer from a lawyer in Japan confirming
that there are no legal requirements to deploy the system in Japanese
and to store data in local Japanese characters as long as you can still
provide the legally required reports to the government in Japanese.
Francis response below is correct. If you want to run your legally
required reports automatically from your system then the employee data
needs obviously to be stored in Japanese. In our case, reports will
still be generated from the pay system which is in Japanese. So SAP HR
can be deployed in English. I hope it helps.
Japanese language requirements
Hi Yvan,
I don't know about legal requirements to provide with a Japanese user interface. However some legal reports require the job titles, department names, job history events descriptions (and dates) to be in Japanese.
If SAP is the only HR system over there, i.e. there is no local payroll system, then you will face the need for it.
some insight...
Yvan, we posted your query via twitter.com/DiscussHR and here's what one of our helpful followers (@bncarvin) said...
'I don't think they are legally required in Japan to offer HRIS in Japanese. Don't quote me on it though.'
When we asked @bncarvin if we were OK share this with you she said...
'We have clients that use our niche HR technologies in English. Translate for EEs but English for admin HR side. You can post.'
Twitter: Follow bncarvin on Twitter!
Hope that helps! DiscussHR ...share, learn, discuss