Employment Insurance: Who Is Covered at 20 Hours a Week

This is a translation of the Japanese original. The Japanese version is authoritative; figures follow Japanese tax law.

Whether you can join employment insurance is settled almost entirely by two things: whether your scheduled working hours are 20 hours or more a week, and whether there is an expected employment of 31 days or more. It is the same for part-timers, casual workers and agency staff, and neither your own wishes nor the company's have any bearing on it. The premium for fiscal 2026 is 0.5% of monthly pay (1,500 yen on a monthly salary of 300,000 yen) - cheap, and yet this is the important insurance that is the gateway to unemployment benefits, childcare leave benefit, family care leave benefit and the education and training benefit. From October 2028 it widens to 10 hours or more a week, bringing in people who work short hours. This article sorts out who is in and who is out, how daytime students and people aged 65 or over are treated, what happens when you hold several jobs, and the mechanism that lets you be enrolled retroactively for two years - or further back if you have payslips - once you notice you were never enrolled, using Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) and Hello Work materials.

The short answer: 20 hours a week or more plus 31 days or more means you are covered. The coverage test

How you work	Employment insurance	Why
Permanent, fixed-term and agency employees	Covered	Meets both the 20 hours a week and the 31 days or more tests
Part-time and casual workers (20 hours a week or more, contract of one month or more)	Covered	The job title and your own wishes are irrelevant. Even a one-month contract is covered if it falls in a month with 31 days
Part-time and casual workers (under 20 hours a week)	Not covered	Covered from 1 October 2028 at 10 hours a week or more
Casual jobs held by daytime university and vocational school students	Not covered	Daytime students are excluded. Students on evening, correspondence and part-time day courses are covered
People working at 65 or over	Covered	No upper age limit since January 2017 (insured aged 65 or over)
People aged 65 or over holding two jobs (each 5 to under 20 hours, 20 hours or more in total)	Covered on their own application	The multiple-job-holder scheme (from January 2022). Coverage starts on the date of application and is not backdated
Company directors and auditors	Not covered as a rule	Only a director who also works as an employee - for instance one who doubles as a department head and is strongly an employee - is covered
Sole proprietors themselves, and family members living with them	Not covered as a rule	Family members only where it is clear they are treated the same as other employees
Public servants	Not covered	Excluded under the Employment Insurance Act (the retirement allowance system takes its place)
Day labour and seasonal work (within four months)	A separate scheme	Insured day labourers and insured persons in special short-term employment

The MHLW states that "an employed worker becomes an insured person as a rule, whatever the name or form of employment - regular, part-time, casual, agency and so on - where the scheduled working hours are 20 hours or more a week and there is an expected employment of 31 days or more"[MHLW]. A company telling you "we do not enrol part-timers" has no legal footing.

The premium is 0.5% of monthly pay: 1,500 yen a month on a monthly salary of 300,000 yen (fiscal 2026)

Type of business	Employee's share	Employer's share	Total	Employee's share on 300,000 yen a month
General businesses	0.5%	0.85%	1.35%	1,500 yen a month
Agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and sake brewing	0.6%	0.95%	1.55%	1,800 yen a month
Construction	0.6%	1.05%	1.65%	1,800 yen a month

From April 2026 both the employee's and the employer's rate fell by 0.05 points in every industry[MHLW, employment insurance premium rates for fiscal 2026]. Unlike health insurance and employees' pension, the rate applies not to a standard monthly remuneration but to your total pay for that month, including commuting allowances, overtime pay and bonuses, so a month with overtime in it costs a little more. Of the employer's share, 0.35% funds the two employment insurance services - the source of subsidies and similar schemes - and employees pay none of it.

What you get: not only unemployment benefits. It funds childcare leave, family care and retraining

Benefit	Main conditions	Rough amount
Basic allowance (unemployment benefit)	12 months or more of coverage in the two years before leaving (six months in one year where the employer is at fault)	50-80% of the daily wage, for 90 to 330 days. A one-month restriction period if you resign voluntarily
Childcare leave benefit	12 months or more of coverage in the two years before the leave	67% of pre-leave pay (50% from day 181). Together with the post-birth leave support benefit, the first 28 days come to the equivalent of 100% of take-home pay
Family care leave benefit	Same as above	67% of pay, for up to 93 days in up to three instalments
Education and training benefit	One year or more of coverage (first claim)	20-80% of the course fees (subject to caps)
Continued employment benefit for older workers	People whose pay has fallen below 75% after turning 60	Up to 10% of pay (for people turning 60 on or after April 2025)
Lump-sum job seeker benefit for those 65 and over	Leaving a job at 65 or over, with six months or more of coverage in the year before leaving	A lump sum of 30 or 50 days of the basic allowance daily amount

Someone working under 20 hours a week and therefore not in employment insurance can receive neither the childcare leave benefit nor the family care leave benefit. The widening to 10 hours a week in October 2028 is the reform that extends these benefits to more people. For the amounts of each benefit, see how to receive unemployment benefits, the childcare shorter-hours working benefit, how much the family care leave benefit comes to and the continued employment benefit for older workers.

From 1 October 2028 it widens to 10 hours a week or more: more people covered, and months counted differently

Under the reform of the Employment Insurance Act enacted in 2024, the requirement for an insured person changes from "20 hours or more a week" to "10 hours or more a week". It takes effect on 1 October 2028 (Reiwa 10)[MHLW, Employment Insurance Subcommittee materials]. People working 10 hours or more but under 20 hours a week will then be able to receive the basic allowance, the education and training benefit, the childcare leave benefit and so on on the same basis as insured persons today.

Alongside that, the standard for counting one month of the "insured period" that decides eligibility for benefits is relaxed from "11 or more payment basis days" to "6 or more days, or 40 or more payment basis hours". The point is to let someone working 10 hours a week still satisfy the monthly requirement. Since the premium is 0.5% of monthly pay, a person on 10 hours a week at 1,200 yen an hour, earning around 50,000 yen a month, will come within the scope of the childcare leave benefit and the rest for roughly 250 yen a month.

If you notice you were never enrolled: you can go back two years, and more than two years with proof the premiums were withheld from your pay

Check your enrolment record at Hello Work. If you submit the "inquiry form for confirming the notification of acquisition of employment insurance insured status" yourself, they will tell you whether you were enrolled and for what period. You can also check through Mynaportal.
Ask the company to file the notification of acquisition of insured status. Where you met the requirements, the company has a duty to file retroactively. As a rule you can go back to two years before the date the confirmation is made[Kyoto Labor Bureau].
If your payslips show a deduction for employment insurance premiums, you can go back further than two years. Since October 2010, where it is clear that premiums were withheld from your pay, retroactive enrollment beyond two years is possible[MHLW]. Do not throw your payslips away.
If the company will not act, report it to Hello Work. Hello Work checks with the employer and takes the enrolment procedure forward.

Without a long enough insured period you cannot receive unemployment benefits. Checking your own insured period before you leave a job saves a scramble afterwards. For the procedures after leaving as a whole, see the three health insurance choices after leaving a job, and for the whole picture of social insurance, see the five types of social insurance.

Frequently asked questions

I am right on the 20-hour line, and some months I go over it and some months I do not.

The test uses the "scheduled working hours" in your contract, and is not switched month by month according to actual overtime or absences. If your contract is 20 hours a week or more you are covered; at 19 hours you are outside it even if you actually work more. If your scheduled hours change and fall below 20, no loss-of-status procedure is needed as long as the reduction is temporary and within six months.

I work part-time at two companies. Can I be in employment insurance at both?

Employment insurance covers only one main workplace. If each job is 20 hours a week or more, you are covered at the one that pays more. Where each is under 20 hours but they total 20 hours or more, someone aged 65 or over can be covered on their own application under the multiple-job-holder scheme, but there is no such scheme for people under 65 at present.

Do international students and other foreign nationals in casual jobs join as well?

Nationality is irrelevant: 20 hours a week or more with an expected employment of 31 days or more means coverage. However, international students who count as daytime students are outside it as a rule. Someone on a "student" residence status may work only up to 28 hours a week under a permit to engage in an activity other than that permitted, so even at 20 hours or more they are not covered if they are a daytime student.

Summary

Part-time and casual workers are, in principle, covered if their scheduled working hours are 20 or more hours a week and employment is expected to last 31 days or longer.
Daytime students, company directors, and civil servants are generally excluded. There is no upper age limit for enrollment for those aged 65 or older.
For fiscal 2026, the employee's share is 0.5% of monthly salary, or ¥1,500 a month for a ¥300,000 salary.
Employment insurance is the gateway not just to unemployment benefits but also to childcare leave, family care leave, and educational training benefits. From October 1, 2028, eligibility will expand to those working 10 or more hours a week.
Missed enrollment can be corrected retroactively for up to two years, and even further back if there is evidence that premiums were already being deducted from pay.

Reference links (sources)

This article is based on the following materials. For an individual coverage decision, check with the Hello Work office covering your workplace.

Note: this article is general information. Benefit amounts and numbers of days vary with the individual's insured period, age and reason for leaving.