I’ve looked on this forum, on government sources in Japanese and English, and asked a few people in person who seem to know their stuff, and I understand the main points of the system completely… but it’s the small but very important details where I get lost. I guess others might be in the same boat, so I come to share small details that I have gathered (please correct me if I’m wrong) and also to ask for some confirmation on some points.
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Things I’m faily sure of:
You can take up to a year of leave (longer in some circumstances).
You can break up this leave.
6 months is paid at 67% of the average salary, the rest at 50%, but this is untaxed, so it feels quite a bit higher.
Bonuses are not included in average salary payments.
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Going into the weeds, what I don’t know for sure about:
How are the six months counted? If I take off one month, then work for 5 months, then take 5 more months off, is all of my time off paid at 67%? Or did my 6 month timer start when I first took a month off?
In the above scenario, is the first month I took off going to screw with my average salary in the calculations?
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Say I was basically taking December off, and basically going to be working January. If my company was closed from 29th to 3rd, when should I be officially coming back to work?
I’m pretty sure if I was wanting to start my leave around the end of June, start of July, I should start on the last day of June to avoid social security payments. Is this correct?
4 comments
Edit: My info was outdated. Up to date info in comment chain
Original comment:
You don’t specify your gender which is quite relevant.
If you’re male, you can take an initial short leave when the baby is born, go back to work and take the rest of the time off later.
Other than that, you can’t split the time. You need to take all at once.
Also to be pedantic, it’s not a year but the timeframe until your child becomes 1 year old, with exception that if you can’t find childcare the period can be extended
Questions like these can often be effectively answered on ChatGPT now.
>How are the six months counted? If I take off one month, then work for 5 months, then take 5 more months off, is all of my time off paid at 67%? Or did my 6 month timer start when I first took a month off?
It’s 180 days of parental leave, not a consecutive six-month period. Allowance is calculated by day, not month. In that scenario you’ll get however many days’ worth of childcare leave payments (67% up to 180 days and 50% after) and 5 months of regular salary.
>In the above scenario, is the first month I took off going to screw with my average salary in the calculations?
No, the allowance is determined by the salary you received during the six-month period (divided by 180 to calculate the daily allowance) before you first started parental leave, so it will not change in the middle of leave.
>Say I was basically taking December off, and basically going to be working January. If my company was closed from 29th to 3rd, when should I be officially coming back to work?
Ask your HR. Even if the company’s closed, if you’re considered “working” during that time the company has to pay your salary. I think it’s fairly obvious why the company wouldn’t want to do that.
>I’m pretty sure if I was wanting to start my leave around the end of June, start of July, I should start on the last day of June to avoid social security payments. Is this correct?
Yes, that’s correct. Social insurance premiums will be waived for that month as long as you’re on parental leave on the last day of that month. Recently that exemption has been expanded to also include “being on parental leave for 14 days or more in a month” so people aren’t screwed over if they have to end their leave 1 day before the end of the month.
Just as a heads up the PM is making a speech tonight (3/17) to announce some changes in the amount received for childcare leave. I think it’s a slight increase in percent, but I didn’t see any specifics yet.
I’m taking leave any day now, so hopefully whatever is announced goes into effect soon..