Who actually receives Japan's government subsidies, and how much? Our Subsidy Award Database combines gBizINFO, the Government Project Review, and disclosures from each subsidy program's office into 1,072,177 records covering roughly 366,000 companies, with a combined total of 228.7 trillion yen among cases where the amount is disclosed. Tallying it up reveals a picture you won't get from the news alone — from the real meaning behind "7 trillion yen to Hakuhodo" to small workshops that juggle seven different subsidies at once.
The Top 10 by Amount Are Not "Companies" — They Are "Pass-Throughs" for Public Money
First, here is the ranking by total amount received, aggregated by recipient.
| Rank | Recipient | Cumulative amount | What it actually is |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan Health Insurance Association (Kyokai Kenpo) | 12.5 trillion yen | National treasury subsidy for medical insurance benefit payments made through Kyokai Kenpo |
| 2 | Tokyo | 10.7 trillion yen | Regional Revitalization Grants, COVID-19 response funds, and other transfers from the national government to Tokyo |
| 3 | NEDO | 10.5 trillion yen | Capitalization of funds such as the Green Innovation Fund and the fund to secure advanced semiconductor production capacity |
| 4 | Hakuhodo Inc. | 7.3 trillion yen | Program office (see below) for electricity/gas bill subsidies, housing support programs, etc. |
| 5 | Osaka Prefecture | 6.8 trillion yen | Emergency grants, etc. |
| 6 | SME Support Japan (Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation) | 6.3 trillion yen | Fund for the Business Restructuring Subsidy, COVID-19 interest subsidies, etc. |
| 7 | Hokkaido | 5.6 trillion yen | Grants, disaster recovery, etc. |
| 8 | Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan | 5.5 trillion yen | Distributing body for operating subsidies to private universities, etc. |
| 9 | Payments Japan Association (Cashless Promotion Council) | 5.4 trillion yen | Funding source and administrative costs for the second round of MyNumber Points (MynaPoint) |
| 10 | Aichi Prefecture | 4.6 trillion yen | Grants, etc. |
Private companies barely appear in the top ranks. National treasury contributions to health insurance, grants to prefectures, and the national R&D institutes that capitalize funds — in other words, "pass-throughs" through which the national budget flows to its next recipient — account for most of the total amount.
How to Read "7 Trillion Yen to Hakuhodo"
The claim that "7 trillion yen went to an ad agency" has repeatedly gone viral on social media, but looking at the underlying data, most of the 41 disbursements are for Hakuhodo's role as the program office for the Emergency Electricity and Gas Price Relief Program (fiscal 2023–2025). This 7 trillion yen includes the actual subsidy funds used to discount electricity and gas bills for households and businesses nationwide. The number is this large because the discount funds paid out to power and gas companies pass through the program office first (similarly, for gasoline subsidies, oil wholesalers such as ENEOS at 1.4 trillion yen and Idemitsu Kosan at 0.9 trillion yen appear in the data — this too is the source of the discounts applied at the pump). The program office's operating costs and the subsidy funds themselves are separate things, so it is not accurate to say "7 trillion yen became an ad agency's revenue." At the same time, we believe the value of this data lies precisely in making it possible to see, company by company, which private businesses these enormous sums of public money pass through.
Where Do Large Subsidies to "Operating Companies Themselves" Go?
The picture changes when you look at companies that received large subsidies not as a pass-through, but for their own capital investment. A symbolic example is the Large-Scale Growth Investment Subsidy (capped at 5 billion yen per company), launched in 2024. Among the 179 companies whose grants were approved, those that reached the 5 billion yen cap were regional mid-tier manufacturers of semiconductor components and auto parts such as Sapasu Kogyo, Otics Holdings, Asahi Forge, Namics, and Aoi Electronics. The average grant per company was also about 1.36 billion yen (among the 151 companies with disclosed amounts) — two orders of magnitude larger than subsidies aimed at small businesses.
Also worth noting when reading the ranking: support for advanced semiconductors going to Rapidus, for example, is channeled through NEDO's funds, so it is folded into NEDO's total (10.5 trillion yen) rather than appearing under the company's own name.
By Number of Awards, Small Businesses Take Center Stage: 210,000+ for IT Introduction, 88,000 for Sustainability
When you count by number of awards rather than by amount, the main players in subsidies shift decisively to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro businesses.
| Subsidy (as published by the program office) | Records in database |
|---|---|
| IT Introduction Subsidy (all years, 2017–2025) | 214,337 |
| Small Business Sustainability Subsidy (General type, Low-Infection-Risk type, COVID Special Response type) | 87,987 |
| Business Restructuring Subsidy (Rounds 1–13) | 66,650 |
| Monozukuri Subsidy | 42,208 |
| Business Continuity Subsidy (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; corporations) | 11,249 |
| Labor-Saving Investment Subsidy (Catalog type, General type) | 10,397 |
The "Subsidy Regulars": 9,910 Companies
Matching companies by their corporate number, we found 9,910 companies that appear on the award/grant-decision lists of three or more different subsidy programs. At the very top, some companies appear on as many as seven lists — Monozukuri, IT Introduction, Sustainability, Business Restructuring, Labor-Saving Investment, New Business Advancement, and more (examples include the food manufacturer Apple Food Ltd.). Using multiple programs is far from rare; the data shows it has become standard practice for companies to switch between whichever subsidy fits their current phase — capital investment, market development, or digitalization.
Points to Keep in Mind When Reading This Data
- Many subsidies do not disclose amounts: for programs such as Monozukuri, IT Introduction, Sustainability, and Business Restructuring, only the fact of selection is published; the grant amount itself is not disclosed. The total of 228.7 trillion yen is the sum of cases where the amount is known
- The same grant can appear across multiple sources: the same company may be listed both in gBizINFO and in the program office's own disclosure (the database displays each source separately)
- Source data sometimes contains errors: the published Government Project Review data does contain unit-entry mistakes (for example, a yen figure entered into a "millions of yen" field, inflating it a millionfold). When our database detects a clearly abnormal value, our policy is to hide the amount
How to Use the Database
The Subsidy Award Database lets you search all 1.07 million records for free by company name or subsidy name. Use it to check which subsidies your business partners or competitors have received and for how much, to research the track record of a subsidy you want to apply for, or to build a prospect list for sales. For an overview of how the subsidy system works and the basics of applying, see our Subsidies and Grants Guide.
Do this today
- Search the Subsidy Award Database for your own company name and your business partners' names
- List three subsidies used by companies in your industry that have been awarded grants
- Check the next application schedule for a subsidy you could use and add it to your calendar
More actions: the Take-Home Boost Checklist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Did Hakuhodo really receive 7 trillion yen?
A. As a cumulative total of approved grant amounts, yes — but most of it is the funding used to discount electricity and gas bills for the public, which passed through Hakuhodo in its role as program office; it is not the company's revenue. The office's operating costs are managed separately from the subsidy funds. Because the published data does not break down funds versus operating costs, our database records the approved grant amount as published and clearly states the source.
Q. Which "ordinary company" receives the most in subsidies?
A. Among large capital-investment subsidies, mid-tier manufacturers that were approved for the 5 billion yen cap under the Large-Scale Growth Investment Subsidy stand out, including Sapasu Kogyo, Otics Holdings, Asahi Forge, Namics, and Aoi Electronics. By number of awards, many companies use multiple SME-focused subsidies, and 9,910 companies have a track record of being selected under three or more programs.
Q. Where does this data come from?
A. It combines the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's gBizINFO, expenditure-recipient information from the Government Project Review (RS System), award/grant-decision disclosures from the offices of subsidies such as Monozukuri, IT Introduction, Sustainability, Business Restructuring, and Labor-Saving Investment, and publications from prefectural industrial promotion agencies. Individuals and sole proprietors are not included.
Q. Will my own company show up if I search?
A. If your company, as a corporation, has a track record of being selected or approved for a grant under the subsidies above, it is generally listed based on published data. All listed information is a reproduction of primary source data published by the relevant ministries and program offices; no non-public information is included.
- Subsidy Award Database (this site; tallied as of July 24, 2026)
- gBizINFO (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) (Japanese)
- Government Project Review Visualization Site (RS System) (Japanese)
- Large-Scale Growth Investment Subsidy for Labor-Saving Investment Toward Wage Increases at Mid-Tier and SME Businesses (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) (Japanese)
Note: Amounts and case counts are aggregated from published data and may differ from the actual budget size or disbursed amounts of each program. This article is provided for informational purposes and does not criticize or endorse any specific company or organization.