Japan Childcare Leave Benefit Calculator
Enter your wages for the 6 months before leave and your planned leave duration to estimate the childcare leave benefit ("ikuji kyugyo kyufukin") paid by Japan's employment insurance, including the postpartum leave support top-up.
What Japan’s childcare leave benefit is
The childcare leave benefit is paid from Japan’s employment insurance to an insured worker who takes leave to raise a child, to make up for the income lost during it. The amount follows from the wages earned before the leave: the rate is 67 per cent up to the 180th day and 50 per cent from the 181st. The daily wage on which the calculation rests has a ceiling of 16,540 yen and a floor of 3,203 yen; those figures and the rates apply from 1 August 2026 to 31 July 2027.
Enter the total wages of the six months before the leave and the number of days you intend to take, and this tool shows the payment for each thirty-day period and the estimated total. It also covers the **post-birth leave support benefit**, which adds 13 percentage points to the rate for up to 28 days where both parents take at least fourteen days of leave within eight weeks of the birth. The benefit is not taxed, and social insurance contributions are waived during the leave on application, so the effect on what actually reaches your hands is smaller than the difference in gross figures suggests.
Sources used in this calculation
Statutory figures such as tax and insurance rates come from the public bodies listed below. They change when the law is revised, so please also check the primary source before relying on the result for an important decision.
- Childcare leave benefit rate and daily wage cap/floor — Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (厚生労働省) Effective 2026-08 to 2027-07 ／ Last checked 2026-09-13
How to estimate the benefit
- Enter the wages of the six months before the leave Give the total of salary, overtime, commuting allowance and the like paid in the six months immediately before the leave. Bonuses are as a rule not included.
- Enter the days you intend to take State how many days of leave you plan. Since the rate changes at the 180th day, the total grows differently either side of it.
- Say whether the supplement applies Tick the post-birth leave support benefit if both you and your spouse will take at least fourteen days within eight weeks of the birth.
- Read the thirty-day breakdown A table and a chart set out what is paid in each period. Where the ceiling or the floor has been applied, that is stated as well.
- Read the assumptions before relying on it Where the employer pays part of the wage during leave, the benefit may be reduced or withheld. This tool assumes no wage is being paid.
Tips for getting more out of it
- The 6-month wage total includes overtime pay and commuting allowance, but bonuses are normally excluded — use your gross salary total, not the amount after deductions.
- The benefit is claimed every 2 months through Hello Work (the public employment security office) and is usually paid in 2-month batches, so expect a 1–2 month wait before the first payment.
- The postpartum leave support top-up only applies for up to 28 days; after that, only the standard 67%/50% benefit continues.
- To qualify, you generally need at least 12 months of employment insurance coverage within the 2 years before your leave starts.
Where this calculation helps
Seeing how the household will manage during leave
Knowing what comes in each month lets you settle in advance how far to draw on savings, and to allow for the drop when the rate falls at the 181st day.
Weighing how long to take
Vary the number of days and you can compare what you would receive in total by returning after six months against taking a full year.
Deciding whether both parents should take leave
Both taking fourteen days or more within eight weeks of the birth brings the supplement into play. Comparing the totals with and without it is something to weigh when deciding how to arrange things.
Having a figure before speaking to your employer
Knowing your own estimate before you discuss the period with the company lets you put your wishes with concrete numbers behind them.
When you want to compare take-home pay
For what you took home while working, use the net salary calculator; for converting between annual and hourly pay, the salary converter.
Terms about the childcare leave benefit
- Childcare leave benefit
- The benefit paid to an insured worker who takes childcare leave under Japan’s employment insurance. Eligibility requires, among other things, twelve or more months with eleven or more days of wage-paid work in the two years before the leave began.
- Daily wage at the start of leave
- The total wages of the six months before the leave divided by 180. The benefit follows from this multiplied by the days and the rate. A ceiling of 16,540 yen and a floor of 3,203 yen apply.
- Payment rate
- The proportion of the daily wage that is paid: 67 per cent up to the 180th day of leave, and 50 per cent from the 181st.
- Post-birth leave support benefit
- An arrangement adding 13 percentage points to the rate for up to 28 days, where both parents take at least fourteen days of leave within eight weeks of the birth.
- Post-birth paternity leave
- Leave of up to four weeks that may be taken within eight weeks of the birth, separate from ordinary childcare leave. It may be split into two spells.
- Waiver of social insurance contributions
- During childcare leave, health insurance and employees’ pension contributions are waived on application, for employee and employer alike. The waived period still counts towards pension participation.
- Tax-free
- The childcare leave benefit attracts neither income tax nor residents’ tax. The gross figure therefore stays in your hands, so the real shortfall is smaller than a like sum of salary would suggest.
Frequently Asked Questions
Side Note — Why it's called a "benefit," not a "leave allowance"
Japan's childcare leave benefit is not paid by the employer as a form of leave allowance — it is a benefit paid out of the employment insurance system. The Child Care and Family Care Leave Act guarantees the right to take leave, but the money behind the benefit comes from premiums paid jointly by employees and employers into the insurance pool, not directly from the employer's own funds. That structure means the benefit is available on the same terms regardless of company size or financial health, as long as you are enrolled in employment insurance.
The two-tier rate — 67% up to day 180, then 50% from day 181 — is designed to encourage taking leave while keeping the cost to the insurance system manageable. Because the benefit is tax-free and exempt from social insurance premiums, the 67% rate is often described as roughly equivalent to 80% of take-home pay in practice.
The postpartum leave support benefit, introduced in April 2025, is a policy aimed at raising the rate at which fathers take childcare leave. Government surveys show that while more men are taking leave each year, the duration still tends to be much shorter than for mothers — and this top-up, conditional on both parents taking leave together, was designed as a direct financial incentive to narrow that gap.