Childcare leave benefit (ikuji kyugyo kyufu) calculator (2026)

Enter the due date, each parent’s pay and the leave you plan. This adds up what Japan pays around a birth — childbirth allowance (出産手当金), the lump-sum allowance for childbirth and childcare (出産育児一時金), the benefit for postnatal paternity leave (出生時育児休業給付金), the Post-Birth Leave Support Benefit (出生後休業支援給付金), the childcare leave benefit (育児休業給付金) and the Childcare Short-Time Work Benefit after it (育児時短就業給付金) — and shows which months you pay no social insurance, and take-home month by month against before the leave. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

Amounts from 1 Aug 2026 (令和8年8月1日〜) Health insurance: 協会けんぽ Free, no sign-up

An estimate, not a decision. Hello Work decides the childcare leave benefits, through your employer, and your health insurer decides the childbirth allowance. Check your own case with your employer, Hello Work and your health insurer. This page does not fill in forms or give individual advice.

Not covered: extra benefits paid by company health insurance societies (健康保険組合), the extensions to 18 months and 2 years and the extra months when both parents take leave (パパ・ママ育休プラス), public servants, the detailed rules for fixed-term workers, working during the leave, pay received during the leave, changing jobs, and resident tax relief.

The benefits assume you go back to work after the leave. If you already plan to leave the job at the start of the leave — to move away from Japan, for example — the childcare leave benefit and the post-birth support benefit are not paid. Only a decision to leave made after Hello Work has confirmed your eligibility (受給資格確認) keeps the benefit up to the last day of employment without having to return what was paid; if you had already planned to leave when eligibility was confirmed, that does not apply (MHLW Q&A on childcare leave benefits, Q50 and Q51). If you decide to leave before eligibility is confirmed, ask Hello Work. This page assumes you return.

1. The birth

Try an example:

Due dateAs in the maternity record book (母子健康手帳). Date of birth, if the baby is bornLeave empty to assume the baby arrives on the due date.

Twins or more Leave before the birth becomes 98 days, and the lump-sum allowance is paid for two babies. Born at 22 weeks or later in a hospital in the obstetric compensation system (産科医療補償制度) Almost every maternity hospital is. If not, the lump-sum allowance is ¥488,000 a baby instead of ¥500,000. Prefecture of the employer (health insurance rate)Where the office that enrolled you in 協会けんぽ is — usually your workplace. The 協会けんぽ branch is printed on the health insurance card.

2. Mother

Employed, with employment insurance, 協会けんぽ health insurance and employees’ pension Untick if not: only the lump-sum allowance is then calculated for her. In the two years before her leave, she had at least 12 months with 11 or more paid days (or 80 or more hours) This is the insured-period condition for the employment insurance benefits (childcare leave, post-birth support, short-time work); they also assume she returns to work after the leave. If she has had an unemployment benefit decision before, months before it do not count. Untick if not: those are left out, and the childbirth allowance, the lump sum and the premium exemption stay.

Age at the birthIn whole years. Age decides whether long-term care insurance is in her premiums. Monthly pay, average of the last six monthsBefore deductions, with overtime and commuting allowance, without bonuses.

In this health insurance for less than 12 months The childbirth allowance then uses the lower of her grade and ¥320,000.

Bonus monthsMonth numbers separated by commas, such as 6,12. Empty for none. Each bonus, before deductionsEach payment, in yen — from the employment contract (雇用契約書) or a past bonus statement (賞与明細書).

Each bonus is for a period of more than six months The period the bonus is assessed on — see the work rules or the bonus slip. It decides how income tax on a bonus after an unpaid month is worked out (÷ 6 or ÷ 12, 国税庁 No.2523). Last day of her childcare leaveHer childcare leave starts the day after the 56 days after the birth. Normally it can last until the day before the child’s first birthday. Empty for no childcare leave.

Monthly pay on shorter hours after returning0 if she goes back full-time. Used for the Childcare Short-Time Work Benefit, which runs until the child turns 2. Last day of shorter hoursThe short-time benefit can run until the day before the child’s second birthday.

Last year’s salary (源泉徴収票支払金額)For resident tax, which goes on during leave. 0 if she was not living in Japan on 1 January this year. Last year’s social insurance (社会保険料等の金額)The 社会保険料等の金額 box on last year’s withholding tax statement (源泉徴収票).

3. Father

Employed, with employment insurance, health insurance and employees’ pension In the two years before his leave, he had at least 12 months with 11 or more paid days (or 80 or more hours) If he has had an unemployment benefit decision before, months before it do not count. Untick if not — someone who joined six months ago, for example. His own paternity and childcare leave benefits are then left out; for the mother’s post-birth support benefit he then counts as a spouse who cannot take benefit-paid leave, so her own 14 days are enough.

AgeIn whole years, at the birth. Monthly pay, average of the last six monthsBefore deductions, with overtime and commuting allowance, without bonuses. Bonus monthsMonth numbers separated by commas, such as 6,12. Empty for none. Each bonus, before deductionsEach payment, in yen — from the employment contract (雇用契約書) or a past bonus statement (賞与明細書).

Each bonus is for a period of more than six months As for the mother: ÷ 6 or ÷ 12 when the month before the bonus had no pay.

First day of postnatal paternity leave (産後パパ育休)Up to 28 days, between the birth (or the due date, if earlier) and 8 weeks after the later of the two. Empty for none. Days of postnatal paternity leave1 to 28, taken in one block; 0 for none.

First day of childcare leaveLeave this and the last day empty if he takes no childcare leave beyond postnatal paternity leave. Last day of childcare leaveBoth empty for none.

He is not an employee (self-employed, freelance or not working), or another case where the mother’s post-birth support benefit does not need him to take leave Otherwise, for the mother to get that benefit, he has to take at least 14 days of leave (including postnatal paternity leave) within the first 8 weeks.

Last year’s salary (源泉徴収票支払金額)0 if he was not living in Japan on 1 January this year. Last year’s social insurance (社会保険料等の金額)The 社会保険料等の金額 box on last year’s withholding tax statement (源泉徴収票).

Take-home month by month, against before the leave

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About these figures

What the calculation assumes, and the rules behind it, are worked through in:

How it works

Childbirth allowance (出産手当金, 協会けんぽ)

For the days off from 42 days before the birth (98 for twins or more; counted from the due date if the baby is late) to 56 days after it: a day’s pay of the average standard monthly remuneration (標準報酬月額) of the last 12 months ÷ 30, rounded to ¥10, × 2/3, rounded to the yen. With under 12 months in the scheme, the lower of that average and ¥320,000 is used. This page works the grade out from the monthly pay and assumes it was the same for 12 months.

Lump-sum allowance for childbirth and childcare (出産育児一時金)

¥500,000 a baby (¥488,000 outside the obstetric compensation system). It is usually paid straight to the hospital, and you pay or keep the difference from the bill. The table counts it in the month of the birth.

Childcare leave benefits (from 1 August 2026)

Daily wage at the start of leave (休業開始時賃金日額) = six months of pay before the leave (for the mother, before maternity leave) ÷ 180, between ¥3,203 and ¥16,540.
Benefit for postnatal paternity leave (出生時育児休業給付金, for 産後パパ育休) = daily wage × days of leave (up to 28) × 67%. At most ¥310,290.
Post-Birth Leave Support Benefit (出生後休業支援給付金) = daily wage × days of leave in the qualifying window (up to 28) × 13%. At most ¥60,205. You need 14 days or more of leave in your window (8 weeks for the father; 16 weeks for a mother after maternity leave), and so does your spouse within 8 weeks — unless the spouse is not an employee, is self-employed, is on maternity leave, or another listed exception applies. The father meets the spouse condition, because the mother is on maternity leave the day after the birth.
Childcare leave benefit (育児休業給付金) = daily wage × days (30 in each full month of leave, the actual days in the last) × 67%, falling to 50% from day 181, counting the days of postnatal paternity leave. At most ¥332,454 (67%) or ¥248,100 (50%) for 30 days.
Childcare Short-Time Work Benefit (育児時短就業給付金, until the child turns 2) = 10% of the pay on shorter hours. It tapers when that pay is over 90% of the pay before, stops at 100%, and is trimmed so pay plus benefit stays within ¥484,121. Amounts of ¥2,562 or less are not paid.

No social insurance while on leave

Health insurance and pension premiums — both yours and your employer’s — are not charged from the month maternity or childcare leave starts to the month before the one containing the day after it ends.
Childcare leave also frees the month it starts in if 14 or more days of that month are leave.
A bonus is free of premiums only if the childcare leave covering the last day of the bonus month lasts more than a month (maternity leave: covering the last day is enough). This page takes the 10th of the bonus month as the pay day.
The benefit is not taxed, and with no pay there is no employment insurance either, so 67% of pay comes to roughly 80% of take-home, and 67% + 13% to about all of it, up to the caps.

The monthly table

No pay and no work during the leave. Pay in a month with leave is by calendar day; a bonus is paid only in a month not entirely on leave.
Pay in the month you go back is by calendar day, at the shorter-hours pay from the day you return. That month still has childcare leave benefit in it, so the Childcare Short-Time Work Benefit starts the month after. Social insurance stays on the grade from before the leave until it is revised on your return (育児休業等終了時改定, on request): from the fourth month, counting the month you return as the first, on the average pay of those three months that had 17 or more paid days, and only if that moves the grade. For a monthly salary the paid days are calendar days, so a month counts when 17 or more of its days are not on leave — days worked before a short leave included (Japan Pension Service).
If shorter hours end partway through a month, that month’s pay is split by calendar day between the two salaries.
A mother who goes back on shorter hours straight after maternity leave, with no childcare leave, gets the Childcare Short-Time Work Benefit from the month she returns: the childbirth allowance does not rule a month out, only the childcare leave benefit does.
Health insurance on bonuses stops at ¥5,730,000 of bonuses in a fiscal year (April to March). Bonuses before the first month of the table are taken as none.
Each benefit is counted in the month its payment period ends. The real payments come after applications every two months, the first often two or three months into the leave — so there are months to cover from savings.
Resident tax is last year’s annual amount ÷ 12 in every month, including months on leave. It really runs June to May and falls a year after the leave, when the untaxed benefit leaves less income to tax; the table does not show that later drop.
Income tax is the monthly table, column kou (甲欄), with no dependents. Every month, 2027 and later included, uses the 2026 withholding tables (令和8年分); the 2027 tables are not built in yet, which can move a month’s tax by a few hundred yen. December’s year-end adjustment settles the difference. A bonus is taxed at the rate the previous month’s pay sets, or by the monthly table when that month had no pay (so a bonus right after the leave is often taxed little or nothing, and the year is settled in December). The monthly-table method divides a bonus by 6, or by 12 when it covers more than six months — tick that box for each parent whose bonus does.
Leaves that follow on from each other without a gap count as one leave for the premium rules.

What this page does not do

Extra benefits from company health insurance societies; extensions to 18 months or 2 years and the both-parents extension; public servants; the detailed conditions for fixed-term workers; working during the leave (up to 10 days or 80 hours); pay received during the leave; changing jobs; resident tax relief.
Postnatal paternity leave split into two blocks. It is taken here as one, and it may not overlap the father’s childcare leave.
Childcare leave past the day before the child reaches 1, or starting before the birth; leave starting on or before 31 July 2026. The page stops rather than guess.
Periods from 1 August 2027, when the caps are revised: they are counted at today’s amounts, and the result says how much of the total that is.
Decide whether you qualify. Your employer and Hello Work do.

A worked example in plain English: How much you get on childcare leave in Japan. The premium rules with worked dates: when social insurance premiums are waived.

Sources

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare — 育児休業等給付の内容と支給申請手続（令和8年8月1日改訂版）, 育児時短就業給付の内容と支給申請手続（令和8年8月1日時点版） and 令和8年8月1日から支給限度額が変更になります
Japan Health Insurance Association (協会けんぽ) — 出産手当金 and 出産育児一時金
Japan Pension Service — 厚生年金保険料等の免除（産前産後休業・育児休業等期間） and 育児休業等期間中の社会保険料免除要件が見直されます（令和4年10月から）

The calculation is the same engine as Tekiba’s Japanese 育休・産休の家計シミュレーター, copied file for file. It is an estimate, not advice.