Outline of the Labour Force Survey
1. Purpose of the survey
The purpose of the Labour Force Survey is toelucidate the current state of employment andunemployment in this country every month.
2. History of the survey
This survey has been conducted every monthsince July 1947 after an experimental period of ten
months from September 1946. It was designated inApril 1950 as Designated Statistics, and identified
in April 2009 as Fundamental Statistics under theStatistics Act. In order to tabulate the results of 10
regions, the number of EDs (enumeration districts)
was increased in 1982. In January 2002, theSpecial Survey of the Labour Force Survey wasintegrated into the Labour Force Survey to publish
the detailed results on employment andunemployment quarterly.
3. Population coverage
The scope of the survey is composed of all
persons usually residing in this country, except
foreign diplomatic and consular corps, their familymembers and foreign military personnel and theirfamily members.
Actual enumeration takes place every month on asample basis. About 40 thousand households inabout 2,900 enumeration districts, which are
earlier selected from approximately one million
Population Census Enumeration Districts, aresurveyed. Those 40 thousand households are
selected for the basic questionnaire, of which 10
thousand for the special questionnaire.
The questions on employment status are asked tothe members aged 15 years old and over (about
100 thousand persons in total) in thosehouseholds.
The consideration is made to avoid the situationthat the particular household becomes the target of
multiple official statistical surveys consecutively.
4. Reference period (Reference week)
The survey is conducted as of the last day of eachmonth, however, in December it is done as of the26th.
The reference period to which questions on theemployment status refer is one week ending on thelast day of each month except December for which
it is the one week from 20th to 26th.
5. Survey organization
The Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal
Affairs and Communications (MIC) is responsible
for the survey, processing of the returns andpublication of the reports.
The survey is conducted through the following
channel.
Supervisors are selected from the staff of the prefectural governments and are responsible for training and supervision of enumerators.
Minister for MIC↓
Governors of Prefectures(Prefectural governments)↓Supervisors↓
Enumerators↓
Households
6. Field operation
Enumerators prepare a list of all dwelling units inthe ED assigned to them. Supervisors select thesample of dwelling units from the list according tothe method instructed by the Statistics Bureau.
Households in those selected dwelling units aresurveyed.
There are two types of questionnaire in theLabour Force Survey: a Basic Questionnaire and aSpecial Questionnaire. Surveys are conductedusing the Basic Questionnaire in the same twomonths in two successive years, and using theSpecial Questionnaire only in the second month of
the second year.
Before enumerators distribute questionnaires,supervisors send the households in the sample
dwelling units the announcement that they wereselected as a target of the survey.
Within the seven days before the survey week,
enumerators visit all the households in the sample
dwelling units and ask them to fill out thequestionnaires.
The households in the sample dwelling units
respond to the survey either online or with thepaper questionnaires.
Within the three days after the close of the surveyweek, enumerators revisit the households that have
not responded online, and collect the paperquestionnaires after checking the entries on thespot.
The collected paper questionnaires are thensubmitted to the prefectural office, checked bysupervisors, and sent to the Statistics Bureau.

7. Publication of results
The survey results are processed by the National
Statistics Center.
(1)Basic Tabulation : Items obtained from the
Basic Questionnaire
The monthly results for the whole of Japan, as arule, are released at the end of the following
month of the survey.
The “Annual Report on the Labour ForceSurvey” is published in May of the following year.
Moreover, quarterly regional results of the Basic
Tabulation are published at the end of the monthfollowing the final month of the quarter. They arealso shown in the Annual Report.
(2)Detailed Tabulation : Items mainly obtained
from the Special Questionnaire
The Detailed Tabulation from the Special
Questionnaire is released quarterly, two months
after the final month of the survey, while the“Annual Report on the Labour Force Survey” ispublished in May of the following year.