Eiteki, the body that certifies working conditions on Japanese film productions, revised its guideline on 1 April 2026 after three years of operating data. The headline change is a new weekly cap that allows individual long days in exchange for shorter ones elsewhere in the week. Three months later, Japan's advertising production association declared a parallel rule for commercial shoots, citing Eiteki's revision directly. If you are scheduling a Japanese crew in 2026, both apply to how your production will be run in practice, even if neither legally binds a foreign production.
映適とは何かWhat Eiteki actually is
Eiteki — the Japan Film Production Adequacy Organization (日本映画制作適正化機構) — was founded in April 2023 by Japan's major producer, production and director associations, in response to long-standing complaints about excessive hours on Japanese film sets. It runs a certification scheme: productions that apply and pass are awarded a mark, and the criteria cover shooting hours, rest, holidays, safety management and harassment policy.
Three years of data now exist. Across 2023–2025, applications rose from 60 to 101 per year, with 131 productions certified out of 234 total applications. The average daily shooting time across certified productions was 8 hours 53 minutes, and the share of productions averaging 11+ hours a day fell from 16% in 2023 to 5% in 2025. The guideline revision published for 1 April 2026 responds directly to that data.
何が変わったかWhat changed on 1 April 2026
The core structure is unchanged: shooting time (rehearsal start to final take) is capped at 11 hours as a general rule, inside a total working day — including setup, wrap and meals — capped at 13 hours. What changed is what happens when a day runs long.
- 11h shooting time, hard rule
- 13h total working day cap
- 10h interval required if 13h total is exceeded
- No cross-day averaging — each day judged alone
- 11h shooting time, general principle
- Exceeding 11h permitted as an exception, with conditions
- 12h rest interval required before next day's call, if 11h is exceeded
- New: weekly shooting time capped at 11h × shooting days that week
This is a genuine change in philosophy, not just a number. The old guideline judged every single day against the same fixed ceiling. The new one judges the week — which gives a Japanese production coordinator real scheduling flexibility to push one demanding day, as long as it's paid back before the week ends. Budget your schedule against the weekly total, not the daily one.
Two further changes widen who the guideline reaches. Productions involving Eiteki's member associations — Japan's major producer, production and director groups — are now required to apply for certification rather than doing so voluntarily. And the review fee has been reduced for productions with a budget under ¥150 million, specifically to bring smaller productions into the certified pool.
広告制作への波及The rule that actually matters if you're shooting a commercial
Eiteki's certification scheme covers theatrical films. It does not directly apply to a TVC, branded content piece, or streaming commercial — which is the majority of what an international brand or agency actually shoots in Japan. That gap closed on 1 July 2026.
This is the number that actually governs the kind of shoot most readers of this guide are planning. If you are booking a Japanese crew for a commercial, expect the same working philosophy — an explicit hourly cap and a defined rest interval — even though the paperwork and certification process is different from Eiteki's.
法改正との関係Where national labour law stands
Separately, a broader overhaul of Japan's Labor Standards Act — covering consecutive working-day limits, mandatory rest intervals between shifts, and other structural changes — was under active review through 2025. As of early 2026, the government deferred submitting the larger reform bill to the ordinary Diet session, meaning most of the proposed statutory changes are not yet law.
In practice, this means industry guidelines are currently doing the work that statute has not yet caught up to. Eiteki and JAC are not government bodies and their rules are not legally binding on a production — but they are the standard your Japanese crew has been trained to expect, and the standard a Japanese production coordinator will quietly schedule against whether or not it appears in your contract.
スケジュールへの反映What this means for your schedule
- Budget the weekly total, not just the daily capUnder Eiteki's rule, one long day is fine if the week evens out — plan the whole week, not day by day.
- Ask which standard your Japanese partner is scheduling againstEiteki for a film-adjacent production, JAC's 12-hour rule for a commercial — the paperwork differs but the underlying philosophy is now the same.
- Treat a sixth shoot day as cheaper than an overrunAdding a day is usually easier to approve, and often cheaper, than pushing every day toward the cap.
- State the rest interval in the schedule explicitly12 hours for a film shoot exceeding 11h, 10 hours for a commercial shoot exceeding 12h — put the number in the call sheet, not just the guideline.