Employment Adjustment Subsidy today: 2/3 rate for SMEs, daily cap of JPY 9,110A government program that helps companies that have to give workers time off when business slows down
The Employment Adjustment Subsidy (koyo chosei jyoseikin: grant) helps business operators who have been forced to scale back operations for economic reasons to keep their employees by partly covering leave allowances and similar costs when they use temporary leave, training or secondment. Under the guidebook as of August 1, 2026 (Reiwa 8), one requirement is that sales and similar figures have fallen by 10% or more year on year, and the subsidy rate is 2/3 for small and medium-sized enterprises and 1/2 for large companies.
Key points
- Production requirement: the monthly average of sales or output over the most recent three months must be down 10% or more from the same period of the previous year (workplaces covered by employment insurance for less than one year are excluded)
- Employment requirement: compared with the same period of the previous year, the monthly average number of employment insurance insured persons and dispatched workers must not have risen by more than 5% and 6 or more people for large companies, or by more than 10% and 4 or more people for SMEs
- The subsidy equals the leave allowance multiplied by the rate (2/3 for SMEs, 1/2 for large companies). The cap per person per day is the maximum daily basic allowance under employment insurance, which is JPY 9,110 as of August 1, 2026
- The payment limit is 100 days per year and 150 days over three years. Eligible workers must have been covered by employment insurance for at least 6 months, and the scale of leave must be at least 1/20 (SMEs) or 1/15 (large companies) of total scheduled working days
- From the period after the one in which total paid days reach 30, the rate and add-on that apply depend on the training implementation rate
What to do in practice
- Compare sales and similar figures with the same period last year and check whether they have fallen by 10% or more
- Before putting employees on leave, check the requirements and procedures with the prefectural labour bureau or Hello Work (public employment office)
When orders at a shop or factory drop a lot, a company sometimes has to ask its workers to stay home. If the company still pays them for those days off, the government pays back part of that money. The idea is to keep fewer people from losing their jobs when work gets slow.
- Leave allowance paid per day
- JPY 9,000
- x Subsidy rate (SMEs)
- 2/3
- Money back per day
- JPY 6,000
Points
- A rough guide: sales and similar numbers are down by 10% or more compared with the same time last year
- A small company gets back two-thirds of what it paid (a large company gets one-half)
- You can use it for up to 100 days in one year and up to 150 days over three years
What the words mean
- Leave allowance
- Money a company pays when it makes employees stay home for the company's own reasons
- Subsidy
- When the government pays part of the cost to help out
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW): MHLW Employment Adjustment Subsidy Guidebook (as of August 1, 2026 (Reiwa 8))
This article summarizes and explains materials published by government agencies and is not advice on any individual case. Rules can change, so for actual procedures and decisions always check the latest original materials and consult professionals such as tax accountants or labor and social security attorneys. English, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese versions are translations prepared from the Japanese articles for convenience. If anything differs, the Japanese text and the original source take precedence.