Employment Adjustment Subsidy: Qualifications relaxed to support business impacted from the novel Coronavirus infection
(Added in April 2020) A new web page covering Employment Adjustment Subsidy in details is added for those who want to know more about it.
Now in late February 2020, the novel coronavirus is spreading around the globe and impacting people and business. Japan is also hit severely by the virus that stops influx of Chinese tourists and has many events and gatherings cancelled or postponed. Some businesses have to consider down-sizing operations and lay-off.
Employment Adjustment Subsidy is to support employers who are suffered from the business downturn but maintain employment by paying leave allowance and letting employees take partly paid leave, rather than firing them. The subsidy reimburses two third for a SME employer or a half for a large enterprise of the leave allowance. The subsidy is however capped at an upper limit, which is JPY 8,335 a day per employee on the leave as of late February 2020.
Given the significance of downturn from the Coronavirus, qualifications for application are relaxed as follows to cover wider range of businesses impacted.
1: Plan document for business downsizing can be submitted in backdated manner even after the downsizing takes place.
2: Period to validate downsizing is shortened from three months to one.
3: Even when the latest three month employment index of an applying company is increased over the one of the last year, the company is still eligible to apply.
4: A new company with less than one year history is still eligible to apply.
Source: Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW), Employment Adjustment Subsidy HP
For details, please refer to the following MHLW sites. Should you need support for application, please contact Anshin Immigration and Social Security Services.