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Guide

Caring without leaving your job

Family care leave runs to 93 days per relative and can be split into three periods, paid at 67% of wages by employment insurance. Family care days are five a year and can be taken by the hour. Since April 2025 employers must explain this individually. The 93 days are for building an arrangement, not for doing the caring yourself.

The 93 days are not for doing the caring yourself. Used that way they run out. They are designed as time to build an arrangement that lets you keep working.

Two separate entitlements

Family care leaveFamily care days
Length93 days in total per family member5 days a year (10 for two or more)
SplittingUp to three separate periodsCan be taken by the hour
Pay67% of wages from employment insuranceDepends on the employer's rules
Suited toA block of time to set things upHospital visits, paperwork, sudden calls

It is not one block of 93 days. Three periods are allowed, so it can cover the certification, then finding a place, then the final stretch. Do not spend it all at the start.

Which relatives count

Spouse (including a de facto partner), parents, children, a spouse's parents, grandparents, siblings and grandchildren. Living together is not a condition — a parent living far away counts.

The relative must be in a state requiring care. A care-level certification is not strictly required if the national criteria are met. Check with your employer first.

Since April 2025, employers must explain this

To reduce people leaving work to provide care, employers are now required to inform employees individually and confirm their intentions when someone reports that care has become necessary.

If no explanation was given, that is the employer's failure. "We do not have that here" is not an answer: the entitlement comes from national law and applies whether or not it appears in the company rules.

Where the paperwork goes

  • Requesting leave — to the employer, normally two weeks before the intended start
  • The benefit payment — to Hello Work, usually filed by the employer

What to do with the 93 days

What you are building is an arrangement that works without you. In order:

  1. Talk to a community support centre — free
  2. Apply for a care-level certification — about 30 days for a decision
  3. Build a care plan with a care manager
  4. Start the services, and test whether things hold when you step back

The fourth matters most. Doing everything yourself during the leave means it collapses the day you return. Use the leave to practise handing over.

Details and current rules are on the ministry's family care leave site (in Japanese). This is employment law, not long-term care insurance. Confirm your own case with your employer and Hello Work.

Find your support centre Official page (Japanese)

Source: the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare · Last verified 2026-09-13. Rules change. Check the source page before you act on this. This is a plain-English summary of public information, not an official translation.

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