Japanese Version

　Revisions have been announced on May 1st, 2020 by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) that have introduced the following additional revisions applicable to stand-by at home taken place at SMEs in April – June 2020.

1. Subsidy ratio is raised to 100% for SMEs who do not dismiss employees nor contractors and pay allowance more than 60% of average salary.
2. An enterprise can apply even if it starts enrollment of Employment Insurance in 2020.

#1: Subsidy ratio raised to 100% for SMEs who do not dismiss and pay allowance more than 60%

　A Small Medium Enterprise (SME), who meets the following, can enjoy 100% subsidy ratio for its leave allowance.

• It does not dismiss employees or terminate contractors nor temporary staff:
  • It follows governor’s request and closes its facilities:
    • If it pays leave allowance as much as 100% of average salary, OR
    • If it pays leave allowance as much as 60% or above of average salary which is larger than the upper limit, JPY 8,330 a day,
    • Then, subsidy ratio is raised to 100% for an entire allowance.
    • When applicable: This revision is applicable to stand-by at home taken place during a period when a governor requests for cooperation.
  • It pays leave allowance as much as 60% or above:
    • Then, subsidy ratio is raised to 100% for the allowance portion above 60%:
    • When applicable: This revision is applicable to stand-by at home taken place from April 8th until June 30th, 2020.

#2: An enterprise can apply even if it starts enrollment of Employment Insurance in 2020

　Selection of baseline month to calculate the downturn ratio is expanded so that any single month among the last 12 months can be used for the calculation to show sales or production declined more than 5%. With this revision, an enterprise, who has started enrollment of Employment Insurance even in January 2020 or later, now becomes eligible to apply (when it meets other qualifications).

　When applicable: This revision is applicable to stand-by at home taken place from January 24th until June 30th, 2020.

Overview of Employment Adjustment Subsidy

　Those interested can find more about Employment Adjustment Subsidy in the following sites.

• Employment Adjustment Subsidy – Overview (Page in this web site)
• MHLW Employment Adjustment Subsidy (Home page in Japanese)