By Yoneyama, 2021 December

Employment Insurance

Last time, I showed you two different tables of the maximum number of the days that you would be able to receive the basic allowances per day (基本手当日額) in case you lose your job. One table is for those who lost job due to company’s convenience, and the other for those who changed job for their own convenience.

The former “Company’s convenience cases” cover not only firing you due to restructuring or poor performance, or going to bankruptcy, but also many other situations described as follows:

l  You quit your job because your work place moved far away where you judged you can no longer commute reasonably.

l  You quit your job because real working conditions are fairly different from the originally agreed conditions stipulated in the employment contract.

l  You quit your job because disbursement of one third or more of your monthly salary was delayed.

l  You quit your job because your salary unexpectedly declined by 15% or more.

l  You quit your job because overtime work was too much. (if the overtime falls under any of the following categories, it is judged “too much”)

Ø  Any consecutive 3 months’ monthly overtime hours are 45 hours or more.

Ø  Any month’s overtime hours reach 100 hours or more.

Ø  Any 2 or more months’ average monthly overtime hours exceed 80 hours.

l  You quit your job because your employer infringed your legitimate right with regard to your or your spouse’s pregnancy or childcare or family member’s nursing care etc.

l  You quit your job because you were transferred where you require a different skill set but the employer did not provide sufficient training etc. to acquire the skill.

l  You had worked under a terminable contract, continued your service more than 3 years and then found that the contract would not be renewed, and you need to leave.

l  Although your employer clearly stated that it would renew your terminable contract, but it’s not renewed, and you need to leave.

l  You quit your job because the working environment was not properly maintained (power harassment, sexual harassment etc.).

l  You quit your job because your employer directly or indirectly suggested that you should quit (accepting early retirement package does not fall under this category).

l  You quit your job because your employer shutdown the workplace for 3 months or longer.

l  You quit your job because you found your work may lead to violating the laws.

There are some other cases which the government of Japan recognizes, are not your own convenience, so longer period of unemployment benefit would be provided.

We will talk about such other cases in the next week.

Next, I will talk about some other unique cases under which you will be also given a longer period of the unemployment payment your employer does not have anything to be blamed of.

(1) You were a fixed-term employee, and the term is expired, yet no renewal was offered by the company despite your desire to do so.  

(2) You quit your job because you felt that your physical or mental health was not sustained well to continue the job, or you suffered from some disease or injury, which result in losing eyesight, hearing or touching ability.

(3) You quit your job for pregnancy, delivery or raising your kids, and applied for an extended period of unemployment payment.

(4) You quit your job to take care of your parents or relatives due to sudden change of family member’s situation (death, injury, disease etc.).

(5) You quit your job because you can no longer continue business bachelor status.

(6) You quit your job because your moving for marriage, your work place’s moving or the mass transit’s change of operation made commuting impractical.

(7) You quit your job by accepting your employer’s early retirement posting under restructuring.

Now, I would like to walk you through other benefits under the Employment Insurance, namely, Training and Education Benefits (教育訓練給付金). These benefits are intended to help insured employees acquire new and additional skills by taking and completing a course of lessons out of around 14,000 courses that are designated by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor. These courses are mostly implemented by universities, educational institutions or commercial training schools, so you take lessons normally after work or on weekends.

There are the following three benefits depending on the category of the course you choose:

1. Specialized Practical Training and Education Benefit（専門実践教育訓練）

This benefit covers max 70% of entire cost of the course in question or maximum 560,000 yen per year for 4 years whichever comes smaller.

2. Specified General Training and Education Benefit（特定一般教育訓練）

This benefit covers max 40% of entire cost of the course in question or maximum 200,000 yen whichever comes smaller.

3. General Training and Education Benefit（一般教育訓練）

This benefit covers max 20% of entire cost of the course in question or maximum 100,000 yen whichever comes smaller.

Even if you are unemployed, you can still apply for any of these benefits as long as the starting date of the course you are taking is within one year since you lost your job, which was covered by the Employment Insurance.

Specialized Practical Training and Education Benefit（専門実践教育訓練）

This benefit is intended to help insured employees acquire the following licenses or diplomas/qualifications:

1. Occupational Licensing

Training period is as short as 1 year and as long as 3 years.

Following are representative national occupational licenses:

Midwife, Nurse, Assistant Nurse

Medical Radiographer, Clinical Technologist, Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Orthoptist, Speech Therapist, Clinical Engineer, Prosthetist, Paramedic, Dental Hygienist, Dental Technician

Masseur, Acupuncture and Moxibustion Practitioner, Judo Therapist

Beautician, Barber

Surveyor, Electrician, Architect, Maritime Officer

Boat Pilot, Pilot, Aircraft Mechanic,

Public Health Nurse

Cook

Dietician

Care Worker, Social Worker

Psychiatric Social Worker

Nursery Teacher

Confectionary Hygienist

2. Specialized Practical Training and Education Courses of Special Vocational Schools

Training period is 2 years.

3. Professional Graduate School

Training period is either 2 years or 3 years.

We will further look into this benefit next weeks.