The Child and Childcare Support Contribution System

The introduction of the Child and Childcare Support Contribution System stems from Japan’s declining birthrate and population decline.

If this situation persists and the birthrate continues to decline, it will lead to problems such as a shrinking workforce, increased burdens on the working-age population within the social security system, a decline in economic and regional vitality, impacts on living standards and the healthy development of children, and the acceleration of population aging.

Therefore, with the aim of promoting further measures to address the declining birthrate and securing stable funding, the government will introduce the Child and Childcare Support Contribution System in April 2026 and implement it in phases through 2028.

Further Stabilization of Funding for Measures to Address the Declining Birthrate

The government has previously promoted a system known as the “Child and Child-rearing Contribution.” This contribution is intended to secure funding for expanding the Child Allowance and supporting initiatives that help balance work and family life.

However, since the funding for the Child and Child-rearing Contribution is limited to the employer’s portion of Pension Insurance premiums, and the use of the collected funds is restricted to expanding the Child Allowance and similar measures, it has not resulted in truly effective measures to address the declining birthrate.

Therefore, recognizing that children and families raising children should be supported by society as a whole, and to secure a more stable source of funding for measures to address the declining birthrate, the government decided to collect small contributions from all generations of citizens enrolled in public health insurance.

Under the Child and Childcare Support Contribution System, contributions will be collected from all generations enrolled in public health insurance from fiscal year 2026 through fiscal year 2028.

The amount of the contribution under the Child and Childcare Support Contribution System varies depending on the type of public health insurance you are enrolled in and your income.

For reference, the contribution rates for the Japan Health Insurance Association’s Child and Childcare Support Contribution are as follows:

Starting with the April 2026 installment (paid in May), 0.23% (0.115% paid by the employer, 0.115% paid by the insured)

Scandinavian Airlines Case ----- Tokyo District Court Decision on April 13, 1995

 

Summary

Employees of a foreign airline company sought a provisional disposition for preservation of their position and provisional payment of wages on the grounds that their dismissal was invalid because they were dismissed due to rationalization such as business restructuring and downsizing at the Japanese branch of the airline.

The company offered to rehire some of the employees after giving them early retirement and changing their working conditions, such as the type of work specified in their labor contracts, but the employees refused the offer and were dismissed.

Point of Decision

Criteria for Determining the Validity of Dismissal by Notice of Termination with Changes.

Judgment

A framework for judgment separate from the doctrine of abuse of dismissal.

Reason

The company's notice of intent to dismiss is a notice of termination in order to change the working conditions specified in the labor contract, in other words, it is a termination of the existing labor contract with an offer to enter into a new contract, which is called a "notice of termination with changes”.

About notice of termination with changes,

 -The change in the working conditions of the workers is indispensable for the operation of the company's business.

 -The necessity of the change exceeds the disadvantages that the worker will suffer from the change in working conditions, and the offer to enter into a new contract with a change in working conditions is deemed compelling enough to justify dismissal if the worker does not accept the offer.

 -And the company has made sufficient efforts to avoid dismissal.

 Based on the above three points, it is reasonable to conclude that the company can dismiss a worker who does not respond to the offer to enter into a new contract.

⇒Considering the company's business situation in this case, the degree of disadvantage suffered by the worker, and the circumstances leading up to the dispute, the notice of termination with changes in this case satisfies the above requirements, and the dismissal in this case is valid.

Please note that the court case listed here is individual case and may be judged differently depending on the case.