Quit Voluntarily? Unemployment Benefit Waits Just 1 Month

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

When you leave a job of your own accord, your unemployment benefit (basic allowance) under employment insurance does not start until a "benefit restriction period" has passed on top of the 7-day waiting period. For people who leave on or after 1 April 2025, this benefit restriction period has been shortened from two months to one month, and if you take an eligible education and training course within one year before leaving or after leaving, the benefit restriction period disappears entirely, so payment starts after the 7-day waiting period alone. On the other hand, a third or later voluntary resignation within five years goes back to three months. Here are the days from your leaving date to the first payment, the conditions for courses that cut the benefit restriction period to zero, and the common misunderstandings, based on guidance from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) and Hello Work (public employment office).

Conclusion: voluntary resignation means "7-day waiting period plus 1 month"; take a course and it is "7 days only"

Reason or situation for leaving	Waiting period	Benefit restriction period	Rough time until payment starts
Company reasons (bankruptcy, dismissal, non-renewal and so on)	7 days	None	Covered from about one week after the eligibility determination
Voluntary resignation (leaving on or after 1 April 2025)	7 days	1 month	Covered from about one month and one week after the eligibility determination
Voluntary resignation where you took or are taking an eligible education and training course within one year before leaving or after leaving	7 days	None (lifted)	Same as company reasons
Voluntary resignation with a third or later eligibility determination within five years	7 days	3 months	Covered from about three months and one week after the eligibility determination
Leaving on or before 31 March 2025 (voluntary)	7 days	2 months	Old rule

Sources: MHLW and the Prefectural Labour Bureaus, "For those who leave on or after 1 April 2025, the benefit restriction period is in principle one month when they resign voluntarily without a justifiable reason" [Gunma Labour Bureau], "Lifting of the benefit restriction period when education and training is taken" [MHLW]

This covers "voluntary resignation without a justifiable reason." Voluntary resignation with a justifiable reason such as illness, family care or a spouse's job transfer (specific-reason leavers) has no benefit restriction period in the first place.

Calendar from the leaving date to the first payment (voluntary resignation, one-month case)

Even now that the benefit restriction period is one month, it does not mean the money arrives one month after the day you leave. The clock starts on the day your separation notice reaches you and you go to Hello Work (the eligibility determination day), and from there you pass through the waiting period, the benefit restriction period, a certification day and finally the payment.

Flow when you resign voluntarily on 30 September (rough guide)

Source: compiled from MHLW and Hello Work guidance on the benefit procedure. Dates shift with when the separation notice arrives and how the certification days are set.

The first payment only covers the benefit days up to the certification day, so the amount is small. Treat the second payment (about four weeks later again) as the first one you can count on for living costs. People who left for company reasons, and those whose benefit restriction period has been lifted, are covered from 22 October instead of waiting for 22 November, so the same flow runs about one month earlier.

Take education and training and the benefit restriction period is zero: conditions and eligible courses

The MHLW states that, among people who left voluntarily without a justifiable reason, those "who took a course within one year before the day of leaving, or who are taking one on or after the day of leaving" that qualifies as eligible education and training (started on or after 1 April 2025) have the benefit restriction period lifted for the period during which they take the training and for the period after they finish it [MHLW].

Eligible education and training	Examples
Courses eligible for the education and training benefit (general, specific general, professional practical)	Bookkeeping, real estate transaction agent, certified care worker, nurse training programmes, programming schools and other courses designated by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare
Public vocational training and job seeker support training	Vocational training taken through Hello Work
Education and training eligible for the short-term training attendance allowance	Short courses of under one month covering qualifications or skills needed to find work
Training equivalent to the above	Whatever Hello Work recognises. Check case by case at the counter

There are three points to note.

You need proof of attendance. The restriction is lifted only once you hand a certificate of attendance or completion to Hello Work. Signing up is not enough; you must have started the course.
A course taken before you left also counts. If you completed a course using the education and training benefit while still employed, it qualifies as long as it falls within one year before the day you left. If you are thinking of changing jobs, taking a course before you quit makes the benefit restriction period vanish.
What is lifted is "the period during which you take the training and the period after you finish." If you start after leaving, the days before the course begins are still subject to the benefit restriction period. The sooner you start, the better.

You can look up courses eligible for the education and training benefit in the MHLW's "Education and Training Benefit System search system." For combining this with the benefit that refunds 20 to 80% of course fees, see reskilling subsidies.

A third or later time within five years goes back to three months

There is an exception to the shortening: if, in the five years counting back from your leaving date, you have already had an eligibility determination twice or more after resigning voluntarily without a justifiable reason, the benefit restriction period for the third and later times is three months [Gunma Labour Bureau]. What is counted is the number of eligibility determinations, so a time when you left but never filed for unemployment benefit does not count.

This three-month case can be lifted by education and training as well. The more often you change jobs, the more a course is worth.

How much you receive has not changed

This reform changed only "when," and the daily amount (daily basic allowance) and the number of days (prescribed benefit days) are unchanged. For voluntary resignation the prescribed benefit days are 90 days if you were insured for under 10 years, 120 days for 10 to 20 years and 150 days for 20 years or more, and the daily amount is 50 to 80% of your daily wage over the six months before leaving (subject to a cap). For how the amount is calculated and the details of the procedure, see how to receive unemployment insurance.

Rough guide: 300,000 yen a month, age 35, insured for 8 years, voluntary resignation

Daily wage: 300,000 yen x 6 / 180 = 10,000 yen, so the daily basic allowance is about 6,000 yen (benefit rate about 60%)
Prescribed benefit days: 90 days, so the total is about 540,000 yen
With a one-month benefit restriction period, payments start about two months after leaving; with a course, about one month after

Note that unemployment benefit is tax-free: neither income tax nor resident tax applies. However, the National Health Insurance reduction for involuntarily unemployed persons is only for people who left for company reasons and the like, and people who left voluntarily are not covered. For the conditions of the reduction, see the reduction for involuntarily unemployed persons that lowers National Health Insurance premiums after a company-reason exit.

Common misunderstandings

The "one month" does not run from your leaving date - it is counted from the day after the 7-day waiting period ends, which itself starts once Hello Work has made the eligibility determination. If your separation notice arrives late, everything slides back by that much. Ask your employer to issue it promptly.
Hello Work procedures continue during the benefit restriction period - the employment insurance briefing and the first certification day both fall inside it. Miss them and you cannot receive the benefit.
Part-time work during the benefit restriction period must be declared at certification - days you worked are not paid, and depending on the content you may be treated as having found a job. Check the under-20-hours-a-week line and the standards on the number of days with Hello Work.
National Health Insurance and National Pension procedures do not wait for the benefit restriction period - you must switch within 14 days of the day after you leave. For the procedures after leaving, see taxes and procedures when changing or leaving a job.

What to do today

If you have not left yet, start one course eligible for the education and training benefit. Attending within one year before leaving makes the benefit restriction period disappear.
Go to Hello Work in the week your separation notice arrives. The eligibility determination day is the starting point for everything.
Count how many times you have claimed after a voluntary resignation in the past five years. If it is twice, this time is three months, so consider lifting it with a course.

Frequently asked questions

I left in March 2025. Is my benefit restriction period one month?

No. The shortening to one month applies to people who left on or after 1 April 2025; leaving on or before 31 March 2025 keeps the previous two months. That said, the lifting through education and training covers training started on or after 1 April 2025, so even with a March leaving date you may qualify for the lifting if you take a course from April onwards. Check with Hello Work.

Does a correspondence course lift the benefit restriction period?

If it is a course eligible for the education and training benefit, correspondence and online courses count. Courses outside the scheme (private courses without designation) do not lift it. Check whether a course is designated in the MHLW search system and submit the certificate of attendance to Hello Work.

Summary

For voluntary resignations on or after April 1, 2025, the waiting period before unemployment benefits start is shortened from two months to one month.
If you take eligible job training within one year before or after leaving, the waiting period is removed entirely, and benefits begin after just the 7-day initial waiting period.
A third or later voluntary resignation within five years means a three-month waiting period, though this too can be waived by taking job training.
The "one month" is counted not from the resignation date but from after eligibility is determined and the 7-day waiting period ends. Once your employment certificate arrives, visit Hello Work that same week.
Only the "when it starts" has changed. The basic daily benefit amount and the number of prescribed benefit days remain unchanged.