Sickness and Injury Allowance Calculator (Japan Shobyo Teatekin)
Enter your average standard monthly remuneration and total days off work to estimate the sickness and injury allowance (shobyo teatekin) paid by Japanese health insurance. Accounts for the 3-day waiting period and the lifetime cap of 1 year 6 months.
Tips
- Your standard monthly remuneration isn't shown on your pay stub — check the "standard monthly remuneration determination notice" issued by your employer or health insurance union if you're unsure of the figure.
- The 3-day waiting period can include weekends, holidays, or paid leave — it just needs to be 3 consecutive days. If the days aren't consecutive, the waiting period doesn't complete.
- Since the January 1, 2022 reform, the benefit period is cumulative — if you return to work and later take leave again for the same illness, the days you were back at work don't count against the cap.
- The maternity allowance (paid during maternity leave) shares the same two-thirds rate as the sickness allowance, but covers a different reason for leave and a different maximum benefit period.
FAQ
Side Note — Why the sickness and maternity allowances share the same two-thirds rate
The two-thirds rate for the sickness allowance reflects the idea, built into the Health Insurance Act, of replacing a portion — not all — of lost income during a period of inability to work. Covering the full amount could reduce the incentive to return to work, so the design deliberately leaves a partial gap. This same rate was later adopted for the maternity allowance, unifying the benefit rate across both programs within the same legal framework.
The 3-day waiting period exists partly because paying benefits for every brief cold or minor illness would place too much strain on the insurance system's finances. Three days is treated as a rough benchmark for how long most minor conditions take to resolve on their own, and the rule has been kept in place since the health insurance system was first established.
The move to a cumulative benefit period in the January 1, 2022 reform was driven by consideration for patients undergoing long-term treatment with repeated hospital stays and returns to work, such as cancer patients. Before the reform, periods back at work still counted against the 1-year-6-month cap, which meant some patients had little benefit period left by the time of a relapse. Making the period cumulative means only the days actually spent on leave are counted, giving long-term patients stronger income support.