Trial Employment Subsidy (General Trial Course)

This program is the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's Trial Employment Subsidy (General Trial Course), a national employment-related grant aimed at job seekers who find it hard to obtain stable employment due to lack of work experience, skills or knowledge. Employers trial-hire such workers for up to three months under a fixed-term contract with the intent of converting them to regular (permanent, full-time) employment, in order to assess aptitude, promote mutual understanding between job-seeker and employer, and ultimately accelerate stable job placement and create employment opportunities. Eligible workers are those who applied for work through Hello Work, a Regional Transport Bureau or a consenting private placement agency and who, on the introduction date, are not in stable employment, and additionally fall into one of: (a) those with two or more separations/job changes within the past two years; (b) those continuously unemployed for over one year; (c) those who left work for pregnancy, childbirth or childcare and have been outside stable employment for over one year; (d) those under 60 receiving individualised job-search support; or (e) those requiring special consideration such as public-assistance recipients, single mothers/fathers, day labourers, seasonal workers, Chinese-returnee permanent residents, the homeless, the unstably-housed, or the financially distressed. Eligible employers are those who hire via Hello Work referral and enrol the worker in employment insurance, subject to multiple anti-displacement and non-relation conditions. The subsidy covers a portion of the trial-employed worker's wages. The base payment is JPY 40,000 per worker per month (JPY 50,000 if the worker is a single mother/father). The support period is up to three months from the trial-employment start date, paid in one-month units. Where the actual attendance ratio (A) falls below 75%, the monthly amount is reduced on a stepped scale: 75%+: full amount; 50-75%: JPY 30,000 (or 37,500); 25-50%: JPY 20,000 (or 25,000); 0-25%: JPY 10,000 (or 12,500); 0%: no payment. There is no co-financing rate; payment is a fixed monthly amount. Maximum total is JPY 120,000 per worker (or JPY 150,000 for single-parent cases) over three months. Procedurally, the employer must submit the Trial Employment Plan (Common Form 1) to the referring Hello Work within two weeks of trial-employment start, and submit the Result Report cum Payment Application (Common Form 2) to the prefectural Labour Bureau within two months after the trial period ends. Key compliance points: do not start selection before referral; do not hire relatives within 3 degrees of kinship; observe past-three-year non-affiliation rules; pay wages on time; and maintain attendance records, payroll ledger and worker register.