Unemployment Benefit in Japan for Foreigners

Last updated: 6 October 2026 · amounts from 1 August 2026 (令和8年8月1日〜)

If you pay employment insurance (雇用保険) in Japan and lose or leave your job, Hello Work (ハローワーク) can pay a daily basic allowance (基本手当) while you look for the next one. It is worked out from your last six months of pay, lasts a set number of days, and starts only after a waiting period — and, if you resigned, a restriction period too. On ¥300,000 a month, a 36-year-old who resigns would be looking at ¥6,307 a day for 90 days: ¥567,630, with the first payment about two months after the last day at work.

Hello Work decides whether you qualify, the reason for leaving, the daily amount and every date. The figures here are estimates at the rates from 1 August 2026; the Hello Work office for your address is the one to check with.

Who can get it

Employment insurance is deducted from the pay of most employees in Japan. If your payslip has a line for it, premiums are being paid for you. To qualify when you leave you normally need 12 months or more of insured work in the two years before — months with at least 11 paid days, or 80 hours. If you were laid off, or left for a reason Hello Work accepts as justified, six such months in the last year is enough.

You also have to be unemployed in the sense Hello Work’s English pamphlet uses: somebody “actively seeking employment, and able to work at any time” who has not yet found a job. If you are not sure whether that describes your situation, ask Hello Work before you count on the money.

Everything below assumes you stay available for work in Japan, look for it here, and go to Hello Work in person on each certification day. The payments are not a fixed sum paid out whatever you do: each one follows a certification. If you plan to leave Japan, or cannot keep looking for work here, ask Hello Work before you go — the figures in this article and in the calculator do not cover it.

The daily amount

Add up your pay for the six full months before you left — overtime and commuting allowance included, bonuses left out — and divide by 180. That is the daily wage (賃金日額). The daily amount is a share of it that falls as pay rises, from 80% at the bottom to 50% at the top (45% at 60 to 64), with a floor and a cap that depend on your age.

At ¥300,000 a month, six months is ¥1,800,000 and the daily wage is ¥10,000. The formula from 1 August 2026 gives a daily amount of ¥6,307. At ¥600,000 a month the daily wage of ¥20,000 is over the cap for 30 to 44, so the daily amount stops at ¥8,270.

The least anybody receives is ¥2,562 a day. The amounts change every 1 August.

How many days

The prescribed number of days (所定給付日数) depends on why you left, how long you were insured and your age. Resigning for your own reasons gives 90 days with under ten years of cover, 120 with ten to twenty, and 150 beyond that. Being laid off, or having a fixed-term contract not renewed when you wanted it to be (for a last day up to 31 March 2027), uses a longer table: the same 36-year-old with five to ten years of cover would get 180 days instead of 90, or ¥1,135,260.

A 50-year-old laid off after twenty years or more on ¥400,000 a month gets the longest ordinary entitlement: a daily wage of ¥13,333, a daily amount of ¥6,744, for 330 days — ¥2,225,520 in all. The last 38 of those days fall after the amounts change on 1 August 2027, so that part of the total is at today’s rate until the new one is published.

When the money arrives

Nothing is paid for the first 7 days after you apply at Hello Work: the waiting period (待期). If you resigned for your own reasons, there is also a one-month restriction (給付制限) after that — three months if this is your third such resignation with a benefit decision in five years, or after a dismissal for serious misconduct. After that, you go to Hello Work about every four weeks and they certify the days since your last visit; the money usually arrives about five business days later.

Laid off instead, the same person has no restriction and the first payment would come around 10 November 2026. The certification dates in the table are placed every 28 days as a guide; Hello Work gives you the real ones at the first briefing.

Do not apply late

The benefit period (受給期間) runs for one year from the day after your last day. Days of benefit that do not fit inside it are simply not paid. The daily amount does not change if you apply late, but the number of days you can actually use can. Your employer sends the paperwork to Hello Work and you receive the unemployment certificate, usually about ten days after you leave; apply as soon as you have it.

Finding a job early

If you start a new job while at least a third of your days are left, the re-employment allowance (再就職手当) pays part of the rest as a lump sum: 70% of the remaining days if two-thirds or more are left, 60% if a third or more. Start on 1 December 2026 in the example above and 18 days have been paid, 72 are left, and the allowance is 72 × 70% × ¥6,307 = ¥317,872. A job that starts during the waiting period does not count, and with a restriction period a job that starts within a month of the waiting period ending has to come through Hello Work or a licensed agency.

Hello Work in English

Hello Work publishes an English pamphlet, To Everyone Who Has Lost Their Job, and an English checklist for foreign nationals. They explain the steps and the documents well. The pamphlet still describes a three-month restriction, which has since been shortened to one month for most people, so use it for the process, not for the lengths or the amounts. The Japanese terms in brackets in this article are the ones printed on the forms.

Questions people ask

Am I covered by employment insurance as a foreign employee?

Look at your payslip. A line for employment insurance (雇用保険) means premiums are being paid for you. Whether you qualify for the benefit when you leave is decided by Hello Work, from your insured months and the reason you left.

Is unemployment benefit taxed in Japan?

No. The Employment Insurance Act exempts it from tax, so there is no income tax on it and it does not count as income for resident tax.

What if I apply at Hello Work late?

The benefit period still ends a year after your last day, plus any extension. Days that do not fit before it ends are not paid, so a late application can cost days of benefit even though the daily amount is the same.

Can Hello Work tell me whether my situation qualifies?

Yes. Eligibility, the reason for leaving and the number of days are Hello Work’s decisions, and the office for your address is the one to ask. This article and the calculator are estimates.

The unemployment benefit calculator works all of this through for your own dates and pay, with the full calendar. Health insurance, the pension and resident tax after you leave are yours to pay; what happens to resident tax when you change jobs covers the last of those.

This is a general explanation. It does not cover day labourers, seasonal workers, job seekers aged 65 or over, pay reduced by leave or illness, or extensions of the benefit period. Hello Work decides every case.

Sources

• Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare — 基本手当日額の計算式及び金額（令和8年8月1日〜） and 雇用保険の基本手当日額が変更になります〜令和8年8月1日から〜 (the formula, the caps and the floor)
• Hello Work — 基本手当の所定給付日数, 基本手当について, 雇用保険の具体的な手続き and 就職促進給付
• Iwate Labour Bureau — 令和7年4月1日以降に離職された方は給付制限期間が1か月に短縮されます
• Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare / Hello Work — To Everyone Who Has Lost Their Job and Checklist for Foreign Nationals Using Hello Work (English; the steps, and the English names used here)
• Employment Insurance Act (雇用保険法) 第12条 (no tax on benefits) and 第20条 (the benefit period)