Subsidy budgets are normally decided on a yearly basis with a number of subsidies established or abolished at the beginning of a fiscal year. This article picks up subsidies useful for companies.
[1] Work-life Balance Support Subsidy, “Course for the Support of Flexible Work Style Choices”
Work-life Balance Support Subsidy is aimed to support company efforts to improve working environment with consideration for employees’ work-life balance. It offers multiple courses, including the “Flexible Work Style Support Course,” which was introduced in April 2024 for small and midsized firms.
(1) Outline
“Course for the Support of Flexible Work Style Choices” was established to provide a subsidy to companies that have implemented multiple measures to allow employees raising children to choose more flexible working styles.
Following are major requirements;
-A company has introduced two or more systems to allow flexible working styles;
-A company has notified its employees about the systems to support flexible work styles by creating a “flexible work style support plan for workers raising children;”
-A company conducts interviews with applicable employees to understand their preference, keeps records of the preference and draws up plans including measures to review their work styles and help their career development after using the systems;
-Relevant employees actually used the systems to a certain extent for a six-month period from the system’s introduction.
“Systems to allow flexible working styles” in above section refers to the five systems described below. Companies are required to introduce at least two of the systems and make them available for workers raising preschool children aged three or older.
Flextime system / staggered working hour system
Childcare teleworking system
Shortened work hour system
A system to arrange nursing care services and subsidize the expenses
A leave system to support childcare / A sick/injured childcare leave system more beneficial than legal standards
To receive subsidies, companies have to make sure applicable workers satisfy the criteria set for each of the five working systems within six months from the introduction of the systems.
|
System |
Flextime / staggered work hour |
Childcare telework |
Shortened work hours |
Nursing care services |
Leave system |
|
Key measures to be introduced |
Allow workers to decide start and end times of work. / Advance or delay start and end times by one hour. |
Allow telework at least half of working days, including hourly uses. |
Shorten work hours by at least one hour per day. Daily work hours other than 6 hours is also possible. |
Arrange temporary nursing services and pay a part or whole expense. |
Allow ten or more days of paid leave in a year, including hourly leave |
|
Standards of system usage |
The systems have been used for at least 20 days. |
The company paid 50% of the expense that is 30,000 yen or more, or paid 100,000 yen or more. |
Total 20 hours or more paid leave has been taken. |
||
(2) Subsidy amounts
|
|
Amount (per applicable worker) |
|
Two systems have been introduced and used by workers |
200,000 yen |
|
Three or more systems have been introduced and used by workers |
250,000 yen |
Based on the Diet deliberations, an amendment to the Childcare and Caregiver Leave Act, slated to be implemented in next spring, includes clauses about the introduction of “flexible work style systems.” If companies are considering to support workers raising children before the law amendment, these subsidy programs are useful.
[2] Age Friendly Subsidy, “Sports and exercises instruction course for preventing falls or back pain”
The Age Friendly Subsidy has been set up to improve workers’ health through measures to prevent senior workers’ industrial accidents or experts’ exercise instructions. The new course to promote sports and exercise instructions for the prevention of falls or back pain was established in April 2024. Small and midsized firms can apply for the Age Friendly Subsidy.
(1) Outline
The new course is aimed to prevent workers’ falls or back pain. The subsidy is provided for expenses of physical function checks in line with experts’ check programs or exercise instructions by experts. Expenses for purchasing exercise equipment or other goods are not covered.
To apply for the existing “course for the prevention of senior workers’ industrial accidents,” companies had to have at least one regular employee aged 60 or older, but the new course covers all workers with no age requirement.
(2) Subsidy amounts
A subsidy is provided to cover three-fourth of expenses with an upper limit of one million yen. The Age Friendly Subsidy has three courses and companies can receive up to one million yen, even if they applied for multiple courses. Companies must also include multiple courses in one application. The application period is from May 7 to October 31, 2024.
[3] Career Development Subsidy, “Regular employee course”
The Career Development Subsidy is provided to companies that took measures to support career development of non-regular workers, such as fixed-term workers, short-time workers and dispatched workers, by rehiring them as regular employees or with better treatment. Among its six courses, the “Regular employee course” was upgraded in November 2023. There is no change implemented in April 2024, but let’s take a look in this article, since many companies are considering this course.
(1) Outline
“Regular employee course” is provided when a company rehired a fix-term employee as a regular employee, based on the stipulation of its employment rules. It is also applicable to rehiring of a non-fixed-term worker as a regular employee, an employee with limited workplace or assignments, or a short-time regular employee. Following are the requirements of applicable workers:
-Fixed-term or non-fixed-term workers who have been hired continuously for at least six months under an employment category with different wage amounts or calculation system from regular employees
-Fixed-term or non-fixed-term dispatched workers who have worked continuously for at least six months at a same company or a department/division.
(2) Subsidy amounts
Chart: Regular employee course subsidy amounts (per worker)
|
Employment status before rehiring
Company size |
Fixed-term workers |
Non-fixed-term workers |
|
Small and midsized firms |
800,000 yen (400,000 yen x 2 periods) |
400,000 yen (200,000 yen x 2 periods) |
|
Large firms |
600,000 yen (300,000 yen x 2 periods) |
300,000 yen (150,000 yen x 2 periods) |
Companies may also receive additional amounts by satisfying certain requirements. For example, a company that hired a dispatched worker as its regular employee can receive 285,000 yen per worker. If such a worker is a single parent who was a fixed-term worker before rehiring, an additional 95,000 yen, a single parent who was a non-fixed-term worker before rehiring, additional 47,500 yen will be provided.
The Labor Ministry has revised the Q&A relating to the Career Development Subsidy in April. Companies considering to apply for a subsidy should check in advance.
Since the subsidies are provided from a limited budget, please check the latest information and make sure the acceptance period has not ended before applying.
[Reference]
Ministry of Labor
“Subsidy guidance for employers”
“About the Age Friendly Subsidy”
エイジフレンドリー補助金について｜厚生労働省 (mhlw.go.jp)
“Career Development Subsidy”
