With financial incentives, free services and benefits on the horizon, Japan has parents with children covered from birth to high school.
If you’re thinking of having children, are pregnant, or already have little and not-so-little ones around the home, check out our overview of the benefits offered to families with children in Japan.
Japan’s population is shrinking, and the population crisis is often talked about in the news and political discourse. The birth rate has been falling for eight years in a row with 2023 registering a record low. According to a study by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, the country’s population of 126.15 million (2020) will decline by almost 20 million over the next two decades and dip below 100 million in 2056. Observers say the effects of such a drop will impact all aspects of Japanese society from the economy to social services. And that’s not even mentioning the current cost of giving birth here!
For decades, the Japanese government has been revising and creating childcare policies intended to ease this problem.
Financial Benefits
The Japanese government offers a variety of subsidies that begin right after giving birth. They then continue until children finish junior high school and, in many cases, high school.
Childbirth Lump Sum Allowance (出産育児時金)
Childbirth costs vary by medical institution. According to 2020 data, Tokyo was the most expensive, with an average of ¥605,000, and Kumamoto was the cheapest at ¥361,000. This doesn’t include additional costs such as private rooms and birth by C-sections. The childbirth lump sum allowance is only applicable if you are enrolled in the National Health Plan and reimburses almost the entire fee.
What do I get?
¥500,000 per childbirth
How do I get it?
Ask for more information at the medical facility where you will give birth. In many cases, the fee will be paid directly by the National Health Insurance without you having to be refunded.
Child Allowance (児童手当て)
The child allowance provides monthly subsidies to parents with children from birth to March 31 after turning 15 years old. Everyone is eligible for the benefit, but parents with an annual income exceeding high-income thresholds may receive a reduced subsidy or even no subsidy. These payments are given out three times a year (June, October and February) and are intended to aid child rearing through to the end of junior high school.
What do I get?
- Child under three years old: ¥15,000 a month
- Child from three years old until the end of elementary school: ¥10,000 a month; Third-born child: ¥15,000 a month
- Child in junior high school: ¥10,000 a month
How do I get it?
Apply at your local ward office. To ensure that you begin to receive benefits as quickly as possible, it is recommended to visit the ward office within 15 days after the birth of your child.
Click here to read more.
- External Link
- https://savvytokyo.com/
16 Comments
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sakurasuki
Also need to educate Japan Inc of supporting parent will benefit Japan in the long run. So far they can't understand that.
fallaffel
The child birth one is basically health insurance, and not a government benefit, right?
Dio
we got 40k from the government and that wasn't even enough to pay the hospital bills.
also 15k a month is literally like getting nothing. Few diapers and milk... days later all the money is gone. I really appreciate that the government is trying but every time I ask a young couple about having kids they always answer that they don't have time, no money and often they say they are afraid they get bullied at work because of maternity leave .
Redemption
Now add up the burdens.
Geeter Mckluskie
Wrong
Health insurance covers 80% of your hospital stay, and all medical expenses. The ¥500,000 is to cover any additional costs and the difference. We've managed to bank the extra...which helps with the cost of child-rearing
Geeter Mckluskie
We have 5 kids...that 15k a month pays the rent and puts food on the table to boot!
Geeter Mckluskie
If you think children are a burden you should refrain from ever having one
Mr Kipling
If you can't afford to feed, home, and educate your children then just get a hamster.
fallaffel
If most people can't afford kids and get hamsters instead, then the country won't be able to afford the pensions and medical expenses of the old-timers in the future. Unless you have a plan for putting the hamsters to work?
Wandora
Let the population more resemble Sweden's then start talking about more kids.
albaleo
If a C-section is required, then the entire birth process is covered by health insurance and you still get the lump sum allowance. At least that used to be the case. Have things changed?
Abe234
These aren't benefits. These are things we pay for. Benefits makes it sound like we are scroungers. Like unemployment benefit. This is help while we are (insert what help we get from the government).However we have paid for all this stuff via different kids of taxation. It is something we have paid for, before we had kids and after our kids have grown up and left the nest.
kohakuebisu
Ask about this at your town and do not rely on one article in English to tell you everything.
I'm pretty sure the 児童手当て is going up in October this year, will be newly given to kids in SHS (up to 18), and will be boosted for child#3. When the government announces something with specific numbers, it almost always happens.
As a very valuable benefit, a large proportion of parents do not pay school fees for SHS. I think it is for folks earning under 9 million yen in Tokyo. In Nagano, it is under 7 million, which is most people here. This includes fees for private SHS if your kid goes there. This is fees only, and you still have to pay for textbooks and uniforms, etc. Some folks still moan, but we're not one of them.
Chico3
That's true. That happened with our 1st daughter.
Yeah right. Where? Certainly not the Kanto and Kansai areas.
That's all good or okay in the beginning. However, wait until they're well into their elementary school years. There's Kumon and Juku, and other educational assistance, and those things are not cheap. Personally, I'm against them unless a student is well behind their peers. I reckon if most students are doing this, then that's a wake up call for the Board of Education. Students should be given a balance of school and personal time and let them be kids and play with other kids.
Geeter Mckluskie
We rented a 3 bedroom apartment in Setatgaya Ward, Tokyo for 8万 a month up until 2020 when we bought a 3 bedroom home in Saitama, on a 1/4 acre lot, 50 minutes from Ikebukuro...the centre of Tokyo...For the equivalent of $150,000. The same home would have cost 10 times as much for the land alone in Toronto, where I'm from.