Japan Maternity Leave: The Essential Employer’s Guide for Startups and Foreign Founders

What happens to your payroll when your first employee tells you she is pregnant? In Japan, maternity leave is funded mostly through social insurance, which means your job as the employer is to allow the leave and handle the paperwork rather than to pay wages. 

This guide covers what you must allow, what it costs you, what you have to file, and what you must never do, and it is written for founders making a first hire or growing past 10 employees.

What this guide covers

1. Your legal obligations as an employer
2. Who pays during the leave, and what it costs your company
3. What a small company has to do and file
4. What you are not allowed to do
5. Foreign employees and pregnant founders
6. What happens when she returns

What are my legal obligations as an employer for maternity leave in Japan?

Every female employee is entitled to 14 weeks of statutory maternity leave, then to childcare leave until her child turns 1. Both apply to employees of any nationality and any contract type. You must allow them; you must not penalize the employee for taking them, and you are not required to pay wages during either. You also cannot dismiss her during maternity leave or for 30 days after it ends.

Statutory maternity leave (産前産後休業, sanzen sango kyugyo)

• Before birth: up to 6 weeks before the due date, or 14 weeks for multiple births, taken when the employee asks for it.
• After birth: 8 weeks. The first 6 weeks are compulsory, even if she wants to work. She can return after week 6 only if she asks and a doctor approves.
• Legal basis: Labor Standards Act (労働基準法, Rodo Kijun Ho), Article 65.

Stage	Timing	Rule
Pre-birth leave	Up to 6 weeks before the due date (14 for multiples)	Optional: starts when she requests it
Birth	Actual date of birth	If the baby is late, the extra days count as pre-birth leave
Post-birth leave (compulsory)	Weeks 1 to 6 after birth	She cannot work
Post-birth leave (flexible)	Weeks 7 and 8 after birth	She may return early if she asks and a doctor approves
Childcare leave	From the day after post-birth leave ends	Until the child turns 1, longer in some cases

Childcare leave (育児休業, ikuji kyugyo)

Childcare leave, often shortened to ikukyu (育休), is a separate right under a separate law, and it starts where maternity leave ends. Four features matter when you are planning cover:

1. Length. It runs until the child turns 1, and it can be extended to 1 year 6 months, then to 2 years, if no nursery place (保育所, hoikusho) is available or certain other conditions apply.
2. Splitting. It can be taken in two separate periods.
3. Papa Mama Ikukyu Plus (パパ・ママ育休プラス, papa mama ikukyu purasu). When both parents take leave, it can run until the child is 1 year and 2 months, with each parent still limited to one year.
4. Postnatal paternity leave (産後パパ育休, sango papa ikukyu). Up to 4 weeks within 8 weeks of birth, which can be split into two periods. Its formal name is childcare leave at birth (出生時育児休業, shusshoji ikuji kyugyo).

	Maternity leave	Childcare leave
Who can take it	Female employees, any contract type	Male or female employees raising a child
Length	6 weeks before birth and 8 weeks after	Until the child turns 1 (up to 2 years if no nursery place)
Law	Labor Standards Act, Article 65	Childcare and Family Care Leave Act (育児・介護休業法, Ikuji Kaigo Kyugyo Ho)
Who pays	Health insurance (maternity allowance)	Employment insurance (childcare leave benefit)
Can the employer exclude anyone?	No	Only certain groups, such as staff with under 1 year of service, and only through a labor-management agreement

Source: MHLW, Childcare and Family Care Leave Act (Japanese).

Who is covered

Maternity leave applies to every female employee, whatever her nationality, hours or contract type. Childcare leave covers fixed-term staff as well, unless their contract clearly ends before the child reaches 1 year 6 months.

A labor-management agreement (労使協定, roshi kyotei) can exclude three groups from childcare leave: staff with under 1 year of service, staff whose employment will end within 1 year, and staff who work 2 days a week or fewer. No one can be excluded from maternity leave.

Changes in 2025 and 2026

1. April 2025. A post-birth leave support benefit (出生後休業支援給付金, shusshogo kyugyo shien kyufukin) was introduced. When both parents take 14 or more days of childcare leave soon after the birth, a 13% top-up is paid for up to 28 days, taking the benefit to 80% of wages, or about 100% of take-home pay. One parent can qualify alone in some cases, such as when the spouse is not employed.
2. April 2025. A child-care short-time work benefit (育児時短就業給付金, ikuji jitan shugyo kyufukin) was introduced for parents working reduced hours with a child under 2. Sick-child leave was extended to children up to the end of third grade, and the right to refuse overtime was extended to parents of preschool children.
3. October 2025. Employers must offer parents of children aged 3 to school age at least two flexible work options from a list of five, and must ask employees about their working preferences when they report a pregnancy and before the child turns 3.
4. April 2026. A child and childcare support levy (子ども・子育て支援金, kodomo kosodate shienkin) was added to health insurance premiums. See the cost section below.
5. May 2026. The Diet enacted a health insurance reform that will cover standard childbirth costs in full through public health insurance. It is expected to start by around June 2028, with hospitals switching over as they become ready. Until then, the childbirth lump sum below stays in place.
6. August 2026. The caps on the childcare leave benefit rose. For a 30-day payment period, the cap at the 67% rate is now ¥332,454 and the cap at the 50% rate is ¥248,100. The 13% top-up is capped at ¥60,205 for the full 28 days.
7. October 2026. Self-employed parents on the National Pension can now have their premiums waived until their child turns 1. See the section on founders below.

Sources: Outline of the 2024 amendment to the Childcare Leave Act (Japanese Law Translation, English); MHLW Q&A on the 2024 amendments (Japanese); MHLW notice on benefit limits from 1 August 2026 (Japanese); MHLW, 2026 health insurance reform (Japanese).

Not sure your leave setup is compliant? SmartStart Japan helps foreign founders set up their company and get their first-hire paperwork right from day one. Talk to our team.

Who pays during maternity leave, and what does it cost my company?

The law does not require you to pay wages during maternity or childcare leave, because social insurance provides the income support. Before you promise the employee a top-up, check how your payment interacts with the benefit she would otherwise receive.

• Maternity allowance: any wages you pay during the leave are deducted from the allowance. If your pay matches or exceeds it, she receives no allowance at all.
• Childcare leave benefit: pay of up to 13% of her previous wages, or 30% once the benefit drops to 50%, has no effect. Above that, the benefit is reduced, and once pay reaches 80% of previous wages, no benefit is paid.

What social insurance pays

Benefit	Paid by	Amount	Who applies
Maternity allowance (出産手当金, shussan teatekin)	Health insurance (Kyokai Kenpo or a health insurance society)	About two-thirds of her standard daily pay for each leave day	Employee, with an employer section
Childbirth lump sum (出産育児一時金, shussan ikuji ichijikin)	Health insurance	¥500,000 per child, usually paid straight to the hospital	Hospital, through the direct payment system
Childcare leave benefit (育児休業給付金, ikuji kyugyo kyufukin)	Employment insurance, via Hello Work	67% of wages for the first 180 days, then 50%	Usually the employer, for the employee
Postnatal paternity leave benefit (出生時育児休業給付金, shusshoji ikuji kyugyo kyufukin)	Employment insurance, via Hello Work	67% of wages for up to 28 days	Usually the employer, for the employee
Post-birth leave support benefit (出生後休業支援給付金, shusshogo kyugyo shien kyufukin)	Employment insurance, via Hello Work	13% top-up for up to 28 days (80% in total)	Usually the employer, for the employee

Sources: MHLW, childcare leave benefits (Japanese); MHLW, post-birth leave support benefit leaflet (Japanese).

Kyokai Kenpo (協会けんぽ, the Japan Health Insurance Association) is the health insurer for most small companies that do not have their own health insurance society (健康保険組合, kenko hoken kumiai). Hello Work (ハローワーク, harowaku) is the public employment security office that runs employment insurance claims.

Premium exemptions for employer and employee

• Health and pension premiums (健康保険料, kenko hokenryo; 厚生年金保険料, kosei nenkin hokenryo) are exempt for both the employer and the employee during maternity and childcare leave, once the employer applies. The exemption runs from the month the leave starts to the month before the month in which the day after the leave ends falls, and exempt months still count as paid toward her pension.
• Short leave: since October 2022, childcare leave that starts and ends in the same month qualifies if it lasts 14 days or more. Premiums on bonuses are exempt only if the leave lasts more than one month.
• Employment insurance (雇用保険, koyo hoken) premiums are charged on wages paid, so no wages means no premium for that period.
• The child and childcare support levy is collected together with the health insurance premium, so it is also exempt in any month the health premium is exempt.

For budgeting, treat the exemptions as a cost offset. The worked example below puts a number on it. For help running the payroll and social insurance side month to month, see our accounting support for startups in Japan.

The costs that remain with you

• Replacement cost: backfill or temp staff, recruiting fees, handover time, and lost output. This is the real expense of a leave period, and it is the one you can plan for.
• The levy: since April 2026, the child and childcare support levy rate is 0.23% of standard monthly pay, shared equally between employer and employee. It is collected with the health insurance premium from the April 2026 contribution month; it applies to bonuses too, and it is scheduled to rise in FY2027 and FY2028. It is one of several running costs covered in our guide to taxes for a new business in Japan.
• Subsidies: the work-life balance support subsidies (両立支援等助成金, ryoritsu shien to joseikin) include a course for covering the work of an employee on leave (育休中等業務代替支援コース, ikukyu-chu to gyomu daitai shien kosu). It pays grants when you give coworkers an allowance for taking on the work or hire replacement staff. In FY2026, it was widened: the allowance route no longer has a company-size limit, the hiring route is open to any company with up to 300 regular employees, and allowances can now be counted for up to 2 years. Apply through your prefectural Labour Bureau (労働局, rodo kyoku), and check what else is open in our guide to subsidies for small businesses in Japan.

Source: Ehime Labour Bureau, FY2026 changes to the work-life balance support subsidies (Japanese).

Worked example: one employee, one year of leave

Assumptions: ¥300,000 monthly salary with no overtime, birth on the due date, Tokyo Kyokai Kenpo, leave until the child’s first birthday, no company top-up. These figures are illustrative.

	Amount
What social insurance pays her
Maternity allowance: 98 days × about ¥6,667	about ¥653,000
Childcare leave benefit: 180 days × ¥6,700 + 129 days × ¥5,000	about ¥1,851,000
Childbirth lump sum (paid to the hospital)	¥500,000
What the company saves
Employer share of health and pension premiums: about ¥42,000 a month for roughly 13 months	about ¥550,000
Employment insurance on wages not paid	small, not counted
What the company still pays
Wages	¥0
Replacement staff, recruiting and handover	your own figure, minus any subsidy

The premium estimate uses Tokyo’s FY2026 Kyokai Kenpo health insurance rate of 9.85% and the 18.3% pension rate, both split equally between employer and employee. The levy adds only a few hundred yen a month on top. Source: Kyokai Kenpo, FY2026 premium rates by prefecture (Japanese).

Planning your first hire in Japan? Use our employee cost calculator to see what each employee really costs, including social insurance.

Cash-flow timing for the employee

Benefits are paid in arrears. The first childcare leave benefit payment usually arrives about 2 to 3 months after leave starts, and it can take 3 to 4 months or more if the filing or review is slow. After that, it is paid in a lump sum roughly every two months, not monthly.

Tip: before leave starts, tell the employee when to expect the first payment and that it comes in two-month blocks, and suggest she set aside a short cash buffer. This takes one conversation and prevents most “where is my money?” emails.

What does a small company have to do and file?

When an employee announces a pregnancy

1. Give the individual notice. Tell her about the childcare leave system, the benefits, how to apply, and the premium exemptions, and confirm whether she intends to take leave. This individual notice and confirmation (個別周知・意向確認, kobetsu shuchi, iko kakunin) has been required since April 2022.
2. Ask about her preferences. Since October 2025, you must also ask how she would like to work after the birth, in terms of hours and arrangements, and take her answers into account.
3. Collect the dates. You need the due date and her planned leave dates to file anything else.
4. Support her health. Allow time off for prenatal checkups and adjust her duties if her doctor advises it, which is part of the maternal health management (母性健康管理, bosei kenko kanri) duty.
5. Plan the coverage. See “Planning coverage and talking to the team” below.

Forms and filings

Filing	Filed with	Filed by	When
Maternity leave premium exemption 産前産後休業取得者申出書 (sanzen sango kyugyo shutokusha moshidesho)	Japan Pension Service (and the health insurance society, if separate)	Employer	During the leave, or within 1 month after it ends
Maternity allowance application 出産手当金支給申請書 (shussan teatekin shikyu shinseisho)	Kyokai Kenpo or the health insurance society	Employee, with an employer section	After the leave days; many file once, after the 8 weeks post-birth
Childbirth lump sum 直接支払制度 (chokusetsu shiharai seido, direct payment system)	Health insurance, via the hospital	Hospital	At birth; the employee claims any difference herself
Childcare leave premium exemption 育児休業等取得者申出書 (ikuji kyugyo to shutokusha moshidesho)	Japan Pension Service	Employer	During the leave, or within 1 month after it ends
Childcare leave benefit: wage certificate and first claim 休業開始時賃金月額証明書 (kyugyo kaishiji chingin getsugaku shomeisho)	Hello Work	Usually the employer	By the end of the month in which 4 months from the start of leave fall
Later childcare leave benefit claims	Hello Work	Usually the employer	Every 2 months, by the date Hello Work sets
Change in pay after maternity or childcare leave 産前産後休業終了時報酬月額変更届 / 育児休業等終了時報酬月額変更届 (sanzen sango kyugyo shuryoji / ikuji kyugyo to shuryoji hoshu getsugaku henko todoke)	Japan Pension Service	Employer, at the employee’s request	After return, once 3 months of new pay are known, if pay has moved by at least one grade
Special treatment of standard monthly pay for the childcare period 養育期間標準報酬月額特例申出書 (yoiku kikan hyojun hoshu getsugaku tokurei moshidesho)	Japan Pension Service	Employer, at the employee’s request	After return, if pay drops while she has a child under 3; can be backdated up to 2 years

Source: Japan Pension Service, EPI and EHI procedures guide for employers (English PDF). The Japan Pension Service (日本年金機構, Nihon Nenkin Kiko) accepts filings through local pension offices (年金事務所, nenkin jimusho) or online.

If you have not yet enrolled your staff in social insurance (社会保険, shakai hoken), start with our checklist of requirements after incorporation.

Planning coverage and talking to the team

A small team has three realistic options, and each one trades money against risk.

1. Redistribute the work. The cheapest route, though it risks burnout and resentment if the leave runs a full year. The subsidy above can offset an allowance paid to the coworkers who absorb the work.
2. Hire a temp. More flexible than it looks, but budget for onboarding time and a premium over the salary you are covering.
3. Use a staffing agency (人材派遣, jinzai haken). Faster to arrange and lighter on admin, and the most expensive per month.

When you announce the leave, frame it as planned and normal rather than as a burden on colleagues. Sample wording:

“[Name] will be on maternity and childcare leave from [date]. We’ve planned the coverage: [X] will cover [tasks], and [Y] is the contact for [area]. Please bring questions to me, not to [Name].”

Work rules (就業規則, shugyo kisoku)

Work rules are required once a company has 10 or more employees. Leave entitlements are a mandatory item in them, and the rules must be filed with the Labor Standards Inspection Office (労働基準監督署, rodo kijun kantokusho).

The 2025 amendments mean many existing work rules need updating, and MHLW publishes sample leave clauses updated for the April and October 2025 changes (Japanese) that you can adapt. For the rest of the paperwork a new employer has to put in place, see our checklist of requirements after incorporation. [Internal link gap: an employment law guide would belong here. No such page exists yet.]

Annual leave, bonuses and pay during and after leave

Leave days count toward the 80% attendance rule for paid annual leave. Maternity and childcare leave days are treated as days worked, so they do not cost her the following year’s entitlement.

Bonuses can be pro-rated, but not cut further. You may reduce a bonus for the days she did not work. Cutting it beyond that because she took leave is disadvantageous treatment (不利益取扱い, furieki toriatsukai), and it is not allowed.

What can’t I do? Dismissal, non-renewal, and harassment

• Dismissal during leave: the Labor Standards Act (Article 19) bans dismissal during maternity leave and for 30 days after it.
• Dismissal after birth: under the Equal Employment Opportunity Act (男女雇用機会均等法, Danjo Koyo Kikai Kinto Ho), dismissal during pregnancy or within 1 year of the birth is invalid unless you can prove a reason unrelated to the pregnancy.
• Other penalties: demotion, pay cuts, pressure to resign, and refusing to renew a fixed-term contract because of pregnancy or leave all count as disadvantageous treatment.
• Maternity harassment (マタハラ, matahara): you must have measures in place to prevent it, including a policy and a point of contact for complaints.

Dismissal is difficult in Japan in general, and pregnancy adds a further layer of protection on top of the ordinary rules. If you are weighing how much employment risk to take on at all, hiring through an employer of record in Japan moves that exposure to the provider. [Internal link gap: an employment law guide would belong here too.]

What if the employee is a foreign national, or the pregnant person is a founder?

Foreign employees

Foreign staff have the same rights and benefits as Japanese staff, and four situations come up often enough to plan for.

1. Giving birth abroad. The childbirth lump sum can still be claimed, with the hospital’s documents and a Japanese translation.
2. Resignation or leaving Japan. Most benefits depend on staying employed and insured. The maternity allowance can continue after resignation if she was insured for at least 1 year without a break and was eligible for the allowance when she left.
3. Residence status. Taking statutory leave while employed should not itself change her status, though renewal reviewers may ask about months with no wages. The answer depends on which of the working visas in Japan she holds, so refer the question to an immigration specialist.
4. The baby’s own status. A child born in Japan to foreign parents needs a status of residence applied for within 30 days of birth, alongside the birth notification at the municipal office. Our guide to bringing family to Japan on a Business Manager visa covers the dependant route.
5. No Japanese entity. If you hire through an employer of record in Japan, the employer of record handles the leave administration for you.

If she intends to stay in Japan after the leave rather than return home, the routes are set out in our guide to getting a long-term visa in Japan.

Pregnant founders and directors

• A director (役員, yakuin) enrolled in employer health insurance (shakai hoken) can generally receive the maternity allowance. Directors are usually not covered by employment insurance, so there is no childcare leave benefit.
• A founder on National Health Insurance (国民健康保険, kokumin kenko hoken), which is the usual position if she runs a sole proprietorship in Japan rather than a company, receives no maternity allowance, but her premiums are reduced for the 4 months around the birth.
• National Pension (国民年金, kokumin nenkin) premiums are waived for 4 months from the month before the due date, on application. From 1 October 2026, self-employed parents, mother and father alike, can also have their National Pension premiums waived until the child turns 1.

Source: MHLW notice on the National Pension childcare exemption from 1 October 2026 (Japanese).

If she holds a Business Manager visa herself, plan the leave against the next renewal as well, since immigration looks at the company’s accounts and her own income for the period under review.

How a founder pays herself decides which of these she can claim, so this is worth settling before the pregnancy, not during it. See our guide to director salary in Japan [verify: this slug is not in the article map], and take her specific situation to a sharoushi (社会保険労務士, shakai hoken romushi), a licensed labor and social security attorney.

What happens when the employee returns?

Shortened hours, overtime limits, and sick-child leave

• Shortened hours (短時間勤務制度, tanjikan kinmu seido): a 6-hour working day must be available to parents of children under 3.
• Overtime: parents of preschool children can refuse overtime (所定外労働の制限, shoteigai rodo no seigen).
• Sick-child leave (子の看護等休暇, ko no kango to kyuka): 5 days a year per employee, or 10 with two or more children, until the end of the child’s third grade at elementary school.
• Flexible work: the two or more options you chose for parents of children aged 3 to school age must be offered.
• Child-care short-time work benefit (育児時短就業給付金, ikuji jitan shugyo kyufukin): employment insurance pays about 10% of the wages paid while a parent works reduced hours with a child under 2.

Return filings and reintegration

File the post-leave pay changes listed in the filings table above, and hold a return meeting to agree on her hours and duties before the first day back rather than during it.

Key Japanese terms at a glance

You will see these terms on forms and official pages.

English	Japanese	Romaji
Maternity leave (before and after birth)	産前産後休業	sanzen sango kyugyo
Childcare leave	育児休業 (育休)	ikuji kyugyo (ikukyu)
Postnatal paternity leave	産後パパ育休	sango papa ikukyu
Maternity allowance	出産手当金	shussan teatekin
Childbirth lump sum	出産育児一時金	shussan ikuji ichijikin
Childcare leave benefit	育児休業給付金	ikuji kyugyo kyufukin
Post-birth leave support benefit	出生後休業支援給付金	shusshogo kyugyo shien kyufukin
Child-care short-time work benefit	育児時短就業給付金	ikuji jitan shugyo kyufukin
Employer health and pension insurance	社会保険	shakai hoken
Employment insurance	雇用保険	koyo hoken
Child and childcare support levy	子ども・子育て支援金	kodomo kosodate shienkin
Work rules	就業規則	shugyo kisoku
Labor-management agreement	労使協定	roshi kyotei
Disadvantageous treatment	不利益取扱い	furieki toriatsukai
Maternity harassment	マタハラ	matahara
Labor Standards Inspection Office	労働基準監督署	rodo kijun kantokusho
Labor and social security attorney	社会保険労務士 (社労士)	shakai hoken romushi (sharoushi)

FAQs

Do I have to pay salary during maternity leave?

No. The maternity allowance from health insurance replaces about two-thirds of her pay. If you do pay wages, the allowance is reduced by that amount.

Can I refuse leave to someone who has worked here for under a year?

Not maternity leave. For childcare leave only, a labor-management agreement can exclude staff with under 1 year of service.

Can fathers take leave?

Yes. Fathers can take childcare leave and postnatal paternity leave, which runs up to 4 weeks within 8 weeks of birth and can be split into two periods. If both parents take at least 14 days, the 13% top-up can apply.

Does a part-time employee get the maternity allowance?

Only if she is enrolled in employer health insurance. The leave rights themselves apply regardless of hours.

Can I dismiss someone who is pregnant or on leave?

No. Dismissal is prohibited during maternity leave and for 30 days afterwards; dismissal during pregnancy or within a year of the birth is presumed invalid, and disadvantageous treatment because of pregnancy or leave is not allowed.

Conclusion

Maternity leave in Japan rests on four points. The weeks are 14 weeks of maternity leave, then childcare leave to the child’s first birthday and possibly beyond. The money comes from social insurance rather than your payroll, and both sides save on premiums while the leave runs. The filings are the premium exemptions, the maternity allowance, and the Hello Work claims. The things not to do are dismissing her, cutting a bonus beyond pro-rating, and promising a top-up before checking how it affects her benefits.

Set up your leave procedures before the first pregnancy announcement, using this checklist for each stage.

Before your first hire

• Budget for leave in your employee cost planning.
• Add leave provisions to your work rules, which become mandatory at 10 employees.

When an employee announces a pregnancy

• Give the individual notice, confirm her intentions, and ask about her working preferences.
• Collect the dates and file the premium exemption applications.
• Explain the payment timing and arrange coverage.

When she returns

• File the pay changes.
• Offer shortened hours if she has a child under 3.
• Hold the return meeting.

Hiring in Japan for the first time? SmartStart Japan helps foreign founders incorporate, register for social insurance, and set up compliant employment from the start. Book a consultation.