Work Style Reform Promotion Subsidy (Working Hours Reduction and Annual Leave Promotion Course)

① Overview: This FY2026 national subsidy supports SME employers that improve productivity while reducing working hours and promoting annual and special leave. An applicant must carry out at least one improvement activity and select and achieve at least one prescribed outcome target. ② Eligible applicants: Applicants must be SME employers covered by workers’ compensation insurance and satisfy either the capital or employee threshold for their industry: JPY100 million or 100 employees for wholesale, JPY50 million or 50 employees for retail, JPY50 million or 100 employees for services, and JPY300 million or 300 employees for other industries; specified hospitals and care facilities must have no more than 300 employees. Every designated workplace must keep annual-leave records; workplaces with ten or more workers must file work rules covering annual-leave date designation before applying and include statutory working-time improvement measures in the project plan. ③ Eligible activities and costs: Eligible activities include training, awareness activities, external consulting, work-rule and labour-agreement changes, recruitment, labour-management software and devices, digital tachographs, and labour-efficiency equipment. Outcome choices are reducing the Article 36 overtime/holiday-work ceiling, introducing planned annual-leave allocation, or introducing hourly annual leave together with at least one special leave. Statutory measures, mere cost or comfort improvements, overseas activities, pre-award contracts, like-for-like replacement, ordinary equipment, and general office devices are generally excluded. ④ Rate, caps, schedule, and application: The standard rate is 3/4, rising to 4/5 for eligible equipment costing over JPY300,000 at an employer with no more than 30 regular workers. FY2026 outcome caps are JPY1.5 million for the Article 36 target and JPY250,000 each for the other two targets, with wage and premium-rate add-ons. Applications opened on 13 April 2026 and must arrive by 5:00 p.m. on 30 November 2026, subject to early closure. Work must finish by 31 January 2027 and the claim is generally due within 30 days or by 5 February 2027, whichever is earlier. Multiple quotations are required.