Paid Leave Days Calculator - Entitlement & Balance from Your Hire Date (Japan)
Enter your hire date plus weekly working days and hours to instantly calculate how many days of statutory paid leave you should currently hold and your next grant date, based on Japan's Labor Standards Act Article 39. Covers both full-time and part-time employees.
Statutory Paid Leave Grant Days Table (Labor Standards Act Article 39)
Grant days by years of continuous service, starting from 6 months after hire and then every additional year.
| Category | 0.5 yr | 1.5 yr | 2.5 yr | 3.5 yr | 4.5 yr | 5.5 yr | 6.5+ yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full grant (30+ hrs/week or 5+ days/week) | 10 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 |
| 4 days/week (pro-rated) | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 15 |
| 3 days/week (pro-rated) | 5 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 2 days/week (pro-rated) | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 |
| 1 days/week (pro-rated) | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Source: Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, "Annual Paid Leave Grant Days" (Labor Standards Act Article 39 and its enforcement rules), as of July 2026. Grants require attendance on at least 80% of scheduled working days.
Tips
- "Days you should currently hold" is a grant-based estimate that doesn't account for days you've actually used. Check your payslip or attendance system for your real remaining balance.
- Under Labor Standards Act Article 115, the right to claim paid leave expires 2 years after it's granted. Unused days carry over for one year, but anything older than that is gone.
- If your scheduled working hours are 30+ hours/week, you get the full grant regardless of how many days you work — even reduced-hours full-time employees qualify.
- The pro-rated grant only applies if you work under 30 hours/week AND 4 or fewer days/week (or 216 or fewer days/year). If either condition fails, you get the full grant instead.
- This tool assumes you meet the 80% attendance requirement for each grant. If you've had significant absences, your actual grant may differ.
Frequently Asked Questions
Side Note — Why the odd "6 months, then every year" grant cycle?
The reason paid leave isn't granted immediately at hire but only after 6 months of continuous service traces back to the original thinking behind Japan's Labor Standards Act: the right should be established only after some track record of employment (and expected continuation) has been confirmed. This kind of qualifying period is also permitted under International Labour Organization conventions, and Japan's 6-month threshold falls within the internationally typical range.
The oddly specific progression of grant days — 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 — is also a design artifact. The idea is that as tenure grows, employees should be allotted progressively more time for rest and personal life, with a gentler increase early on and a steeper one from around the third year onward.
The pro-rated grant system for part-time workers was introduced in a 1987 amendment. Before that, paid leave for part-timers was left largely to employer discretion, with no clear standard. Establishing an explicit table based on weekly working days was meant to guarantee fair access to leave for shorter-hour workers as well.
The "days you should currently hold" figure from this tool is an upper bound based purely on grants. Your actual remaining balance depends on how much you've used, so for situations that require an exact number — like negotiating a payout at resignation — always cross-check with your employer's records.