Tokyo "Foreigner" Subsidies: Who Actually Gets the Money?

This is an English translation of our Japanese article. Rules and figures may change; the Japanese version and official sources are authoritative. For individual applications, contact the office in charge of each program.

Posts claiming that "the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is spending tax money on foreigners" keep spreading, each time about a different program. In May 2026 it was a subsidy for prayer rooms in hotels; in October 2025 it was compensation for unpaid medical bills of foreign patients. We checked seven programs against Tokyo's own guidelines and Q&A pages. The money goes to hotels, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), non-profits, hospitals, or borrowers of bank loans. None of the seven pays cash to foreign individuals.

Two of the programs are also open for applications now to hotels and restaurants in Tokyo and to SMEs that employ foreign staff. The deadlines are 14 January and 31 March 2027.

Seven programs at a glance: the money goes to businesses, groups and hospitals

Program	Who receives the money	Amount	Results / status
Inbound tourism readiness support (including prayer rooms)	Hotels, restaurants and similar businesses in Tokyo	Half of costs, up to ¥3 million per facility	No prayer room supported yet (as of September 2026)
Training grant for foreign employees	Tokyo SMEs that employ foreign staff	Half of costs, up to ¥250,000	Applications until 14 January 2027
Grant for projects supporting foreign residents	Non-profits and public-interest corporations running Japanese classes and similar	Half of costs, up to ¥5 million	FY2026: 19 projects, ¥40 million
Compensation for unpaid medical bills of foreign patients	Hospitals and clinics in Tokyo	Up to ¥2 million per patient	FY2024: 36 facilities, ¥13.18 million (press report)
Funding support for foreign entrepreneurs	Loans made by banks and a credit union (must be repaid)	Loans up to ¥15 million	Ended March 2024; 7 loans, ¥60.5 million
Free smartphone loan	Tokyo residents in households exempt from residence tax (any nationality)	Phone and data lent for 3 months	500 units; must be returned
Serviced apartments in a National Strategic Special Zone	(A national corporate tax incentive; no Tokyo money is paid)	—	Tokyo says it is not a rent subsidy

Tokyo's money goes to businesses, groups and hospitals, and reaches foreigners as facilities, lessons or medical care (prepared by this site from Tokyo's guidelines and Q&A)

Even when businesses receive the money, it is still tax money. Whether taxes should be spent on foreign visitors and residents remains a separate question. This article checks, against Tokyo's own documents, which figures and mechanisms in the viral posts are wrong.

Prayer room subsidy: up to ¥3 million for hotel and restaurant facilities, none supported yet

Prayer rooms are one of the items covered by the "Inbound Tourism Readiness Support Program", which helps hotels and restaurants receive foreign visitors. They sit in the same scheme as multilingual signs, Wi-Fi, cashless payment terminals, luggage storage and security cameras. [Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau: Inbound Tourism Readiness Support Program]

The money goes to the business that builds the facility: half of costs, up to ¥3 million per facility (there is no separate cap for prayer rooms)
The room must be posted and announced in multiple languages as "available to anyone". Furnishings are not covered
Tokyo states: "There is no Tokyo subsidy to support the construction of mosques" [Tokyo Bureau of Industrial and Labor Affairs: Q&A]
As of 18 September 2026, Tokyo said it had not yet supported any prayer room [Japan FactCheck Center]

Unpaid medical bills: not "1,000 people fled", but compensation of ¥13.18 million to 36 facilities

A post spread claiming that "in FY2024 alone, 1,000 foreigners fled without paying their medical bills, and Tokyo covered it with tax money". The Sankei Shimbun article it was based on (30 October 2025) contains two separate figures. [Sankei Shimbun, 30 Oct 2025]

Unpaid bills of foreign patients at Tokyo metropolitan hospitals: ¥171.55 million as of FY2024 (¥153.77 million in FY2023). Converted from the total, this works out to about 1,000 unpaid cases in FY2024
Amount Tokyo compensated: ¥13,187,000 in total to 36 facilities in Tokyo in FY2024

The 1,000 is a number of cases estimated from the total amount, not a number of people, and the article does not use the word "fled". The compensation is also narrowly targeted. [Tokyo Bureau of Public Health: Compensation for unpaid medical bills of foreign patients]

Only emergency treatment, such as after an accident, for foreigners who live or work in Tokyo and have neither public health insurance nor public assistance such as welfare
Short-term visitors (tourists and business travellers) are not covered
Up to 14 days of inpatient care or 3 days of outpatient care, calculated within the scope of insured treatment, up to ¥2 million per patient
The money is paid to the hospital, only for amounts it could not collect despite collection efforts. If it later collects, it must pay the money back

The program started in 1994 as "a provisional program until the national government takes measures", and its guidelines still say so more than 30 years later. [Implementation guidelines] In other words, hospitals and Tokyo have kept bearing unpaid bills without a national system.

¥15 million for foreign entrepreneurs: bank loans that must be repaid, ended in March 2024

The program that drew attention in 2022 as "up to ¥15 million for foreign entrepreneurs" did not hand out Tokyo money. Banks such as Kiraboshi Bank screened applicants and made loans. Tokyo's role was to approve business plans and refer applicants to the lenders. [Tokyo Bureau of Industrial and Labor Affairs: Funding support for foreign entrepreneurs]

Loans of up to ¥15 million, at up to 2.7% interest, for up to 10 years, and must be repaid
Lending ended in March 2024. Results: 7 loans, ¥60.5 million
Japanese founders can use Tokyo's institutional loans for start-ups and the start-up support for women, young people and seniors. Tokyo's Q&A says those terms are more favorable

In July 2025, Tokyo warned that posts claiming "loans without guarantors" and "an application office in Hong Kong" were untrue. [Tokyo Bureau of Industrial and Labor Affairs, 17 Jul 2025]

Smartphone loans and special-zone housing: decided by resident registration and tax rules, not nationality

Free smartphone loan (from October 2026): for people aged 15 to 64 who are registered as Tokyo residents and whose whole household is exempt from residence tax. There is no nationality requirement, but the FAQ states that "short-term visitors are not eligible for this program". The phone must be returned after 3 months [Tokyo Digital Service Bureau: FAQ]
Serviced apartments in a National Strategic Special Zone (September 2025): this concerns a national corporate tax incentive for private developers' capital investment. Tokyo states that "it does not support renovation costs or rent" [Tokyo Policy Planning Bureau]

Two programs Tokyo businesses can apply for now

Two of the programs above are subsidies for businesses in Japan to use.

Program	Eligible	Amount	Deadline
Inbound tourism readiness support	Hotels in Tokyo; small and medium-sized restaurants, shops and experience facilities; tour buses and taxis	Half of costs (two-thirds for multilingual services), up to ¥3 million per facility; up to ¥10 million for associations and groups	31 March 2027 (closes early if the budget runs out)
Training grant for foreign employees (general course)	Tokyo SMEs employing foreign staff with a work-eligible residence status	Half of Japanese training and similar costs, up to ¥250,000 (¥150,000 for the short plan of 30 hours or more)	14 January 2027

The training grant mainly covers Japanese-language education for employees at roughly JLPT N2 level or below. Business manners and cross-cultural courses are covered only when combined with Japanese education. The course for companies employing Ukrainian evacuees covers all costs, up to ¥500,000. [Tokyo, 9 Apr 2026 announcement]

The national subsidy for employing foreign workers fell from a maximum of ¥800,000 to ¥250,000 in October 2026 (see Subsidy for employing foreign workers cut from ¥800,000 to ¥250,000). SMEs in Tokyo should check whether it can be combined with Tokyo's training grant.

Summary

In Tokyo's seven foreigner-related programs, the money goes to hotels, SMEs, NPOs, hospitals and borrowers; none pays cash to foreign individuals
The prayer room subsidy is part of a facility subsidy of up to ¥3 million per facility, and none had been supported as of September 2026
Compensation for unpaid medical bills was ¥13.18 million to 36 facilities in FY2024. The "1,000" is a case count estimated from the total, and tourists are not covered
The ¥15 million for foreign entrepreneurs was bank lending, which ended in March 2024 with 7 loans
Tokyo hotels and restaurants can apply until 31 March 2027, and SMEs employing foreign staff until 14 January 2027

References (sources)

The compensation figure for unpaid medical bills (36 facilities, ¥13,187,000) and the unpaid bills at metropolitan hospitals come from the Sankei Shimbun report, and the zero prayer rooms supported comes from Tokyo's answer to the Japan FactCheck Center; neither has been confirmed in Tokyo's published documents. This article is general information as of 2 November 2026 and does not refer to any particular nationality or individual. Please check eligibility with the office in charge of each program.