On November 8, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced Japan’s five elements of business subsidies and worker support measures, as the second supplementary budget for the 2022 fiscal year to implement “the comprehensive economic measures package.” 2022 Japanese enhancements in worker and workplace subsidies and support are important and material efforts to address the country’s demographic and economic challenges, with specific support for the underlying business economics.

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Source Materials for this Article

All source materials are MHLW notices and documents, published in Japanese, as listed below:

2022 Supplementary Budget web page

Complete Supplementary Budget Materials 

Key Points Summary of the Supplementary Measures

Background

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has created and expanded various subsidies outlined in this comprehensive economic measures package. Specifically, they address these five areas:

1. Wage increases – investment in people, labor mobility growth and stabilization of employment insurance finance that supports it 
2. Various business subsidies and grants supporting worker growth
3. Promotion of DX in the medical and nursing care fields, improvement of science and technology and realization of innovation
4. Child and child-rearing support, etc.
5. Realization of a safe life and an inclusive society

Expanding Business Improvement Subsidies

• Increase the maximum amount of subsidies for businesses with less than 30 people
• Subsidies: Expand “related expenses” as subsidies for special business operators
• Raised the requirement to have a business site size of less than 100 people.

Expanding Support Subsidies for Promoting Work Style Reform

• If a business owner with a company size of 30 or less makes a wage increase, the subsidy limit will be added to 300,000 yen to a maximum of 3 million yen (from 480,000 yen to a maximum of 4.8 million yen for a raise of wages of 3% or more).

Development of Human Resources Development Support Subsidy

• Depending on the development of business, etc., we will subsidize expenses in the case of training to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary in new fields.
• 75% as an expense subsidy (60% for large companies), 960 yen as a wage subsidy (480 yen for large companies) / hour, subsidized people (the subsidy limit per business is 100 million yen per year)

Expansion of Career Advancement Subsidies 

Full-time courses

• In the human resource development support subsidy, increase the additional amount when you become a full-time employee after completing the spontaneous vocational ability development training and flat-rate training.
• It is a new addition to the case of becoming a full-time employee after completing a specific training in the human resource development support subsidy “Business Development, etc. Squirrel Killing Support Course” (tentative name).

Revision course for wage regulations, etc.

• In addition to reviewing the payment requirements (2% or more → 3% or more), significantly expand the amount of subsidies when raising wages by 5% or more
• Removal of application restrictions per business site once per year

Specified Job Seeker Employment Development Grant

• Employ people who have difficulty finding employment who want to work in a job without work experience, formulate a human resource development plan, develop human resources, and raise wages, and provide a high subsidy (1.5 times the normal course) (a certain training period and number of hours) Only when conducting training to meet the
• Added to fields other than the current growth fields (digital, green)

Development of Industrial Employment Stability Grant (Skill Up Support Course

• In addition to improving the skills of workers by enrollment type secondment, we will subsidize a part of the wages on secondment borne by the employer (directed source) who increased the wages by 5% or more when returning from the secondment.
• Maximum amount: 8,355 yen per person per day (10 million yen per business owner)
• Period of payment: 1 month to 1 year

Review of the labor mobility support subsidy (early employment support course)

• For the labor mobility support subsidy (early employment support course) to support the early re-employment of those who are forced to leave their leave, we will increase wages more than their previous job.
• If the wage at the time of employment is increased by 5% or more compared to the wage before the employment, 200,000 yen will be added as a wage increase.

Review of mid-career recruitment support subsidy (mid-career recruitment expansion course

• Review the requirements of initiatives to increase mid-career recruitment expansion initiatives A (expanding mid-career recruitment rate), B (first-career recruitment over 45 years old), C (information publication), and promote mid-career recruitment to raise wages over 45 years old from previous jobs.
• From the above A requirements, “for companies with a mid-career recruitment rate of less than 60% for the three years before the plan” has been abolished.
• In addition to the above B requirements, “The wage of mid-career employees over the age of 45 increases by 5% or more compared to before the employment (more than half of mid-career hires) is added.
• The information of the above C is published, and the statutory mid-career recruitment rate will be announced.