If you take time off from work for childbirth
“Maternity Allowance” is paid when a female insured person cannot earn a salary due to time taken off from work for childbirth.
Maternity Allowance
When a female insured person takes time off from work for childbirth, she is paid two-thirds of her average standard monthly remuneration over the most recent 12-month period ÷ 30 per day off to help cover living costs during that period. This benefit is referred to as “Maternity Allowance”.
- * Method for calculating standard daily remuneration when the period preceding the payment start date is less than 12 months
- Average standard monthly remuneration for the continuous months before the month in which payment began
- Average amount of standard monthly remuneration for all insured persons in the same month as of September 30 of the fiscal year preceding the applicable fiscal year
Payment period
Childbirth
Under health insurance system, “childbirth” refers to live birth, stillbirth, or abortion after at least four months (85 days) of pregnancy. Since normal childbirths do not qualify as insurance medical care (benefits-in-kind), the Childbirth and Childcare Lump-Sum Grant is paid in cash to assist with the costs of childbirth.
Health insurance covers abnormal childbirth and other cases treated as sickness, as well as cases such as those involving complications of other sicknesses.
Cases in which you are eligible to receive the Maternity Allowance and Injury and Sickness Allowance concurrently
If you are eligible to receive Maternity Allowance and Injury and Sickness Allowance concurrently, payment of the Maternity Allowance will be granted priority. However, if the Maternity Allowance paid is less than the Injury and Sickness Allowance, the difference between the two amounts will be paid.
You are exempt from paying insurance premiums during maternity leave, childcare leave, or other similar leave
To reduce financial burdens while taking childcare or similar leave (including paternity leave [newborn care leave]), health insurance societies exempt insured persons and their employers from the payment of insurance premiums during the period of such leave in cases where employers have applied for such exemption. This exemption applies from the month in which the leave starts through the month immediately preceding the month that includes the day following the end of the leave.
If the month that includes the day on which childcare or similar leave starts is the same as the month that includes the day following the end of the leave, insurance premiums are waived for the month if the number of days of such leave is 14 days or longer.
Insurance premiums on bonuses are waived only if childcare or similar leave has been taken for a continuous period of longer than one month that includes the last day of the month in which the bonus was paid.
Employers can also apply on behalf of their employees for exemptions from the requirement to pay insurance premiums during the period of maternity leave.
- ** Period of childcare or similar leave: the period of childcare leave or similar leave that conforms to the system of childcare leave, up to the child's third birthday at the latest.
- ** Period of maternity leave: Period during which you did not work due to pregnancy or childbirth, within the period starting 42 days before birth (98 days for multiple births) and ending 56 days after birth
- ** Paternity leave (newborn care leave): A system under which eligible persons may take leave for up to four weeks during the eight-week period after the birth of a child. This leave may be taken separately from childcare leave.