8,330 → 15,000 : employment adjustment grant
Finally, the amount of Employment Adjustment Grant (雇用調整助成金) rose up to ¥15,000 per day from ¥8,330.
The government of Japan decided to increase the amount on May 15th, and they are working on the simplification of the application procedure.
[detail] https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/000630379.pdf
They will release the simplified application process tomorrow (May 19th), so we just need to wait for a bit to see how simplified it is.
Coverage
The coverage of the employees who need to take day-off was originally 4/5 (80%) for SMEs, and 2/3 (66%) for large corporations.
If they do not fire any employees, the coverage goes up to 9/10 (90%) for SMEs, and 3/4 (75%) for large corporations, but I feel many companies had to let their employees/part-timers go.
If the employers contribute to stop the business operation under the request from municipalities, the coverage goes up to 100% now, but we need to think how many of employers could actually keep all the staff up until now.
When can we get ¥15,000?
The decision must be made quickly, but it may take a while.
The government found the application procedures for the Employment Adjustment Grant was the way too complicated in early April, and they will finally announce the simplified application process on May 19th.
As far as I heard, this application is the most difficult one.
All subsidy/grant applications require tons of paperworks and every time I apply, the application becomes a booklet.
I just wish, all the digital translation started a few years back, so that we wouldn’t have to face this problem right now.
In Germany, some people received cash within 2 days after they applied, and on average it took only 2 weeks to get cash.
In Japan, many people want to apply, but the simplification of the procedure took a month to decide.
If nobody can save you, save yourself
According to Sankeibiz, employees/part-timers can apply for the grant by themselves if their employers are not promptly taking step to apply for the grant and if they are not getting paid at all. There is no information about this criteria yet.
Some business owners asked “¥8,330 per day is not enough to live”.
Yes — on average we work around 20 days per month, so the maximum that we can get per month is ¥166,600 according to the criteria as of now even if we can get 100% coverage. Japan had a long holiday in May, so the maximum amount that we can get is less than ¥150,000.
When a startup that I was working for went almost bankrupt a few years ago, many employees working there received the monthly minimum wage. Several taxes and insurance are deducted from the wage, so the cash in hand that we received was less than 160,000.
I had to live in Tokyo with this salary for a few month, so I understand how it’s difficult after paying health insurance, pension insurance, local tax, income tax, rent, transportation fee...
The wage that I received dropped by 20%, and my weight dropped by 10% in a month. Many friends told me “you’re joking!” because I am originally from an area where everybody likes to joke around, but it was very true.
The good thing is I don’t need to fear anything after going through all this.
We just need a speedy action.
Many politicians are discussing during the national diet.
We just need to know the result after making decisions.
Decide first,
adjust next,
and discuss later.
If employees/part-timers are already fired, they have nothing to do with it.
Japan still has a very strong labor law, so the unemployment rate stays low compared to the other countries.
However, on the ground people are getting fired. Even if employees sue their employers, they would just waste their time and money by just going to court, and the compensation that they can get back is quite small, so nobody wants to waste our precious resource especially during this emergency period.
Time is the most precious resource for all of us, so please hurry up.
