Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (28.10.2020) Employers, who introduced a paid-leave programme for female pregnant employees who are recommended by a doctor to take leaves due to stress caused by Covid-19, can apply a subsidy. Eligible employers are who informed employees of the programme and allowed a employee more than five days paid-leave inclusive between 7 May 2020 and 31 January 2021.

Jizokuka-kyufukin (01.09.2020) One time subsidy for small and medium-sized enterprises and sole proprietors whose  sales of any month from January to December reduced by at least 50% compared to that of last year. The amount is 2,000,000 yen maximum for SMEs, and 1,000,000 yen maximum for sole proprietors including freelances. Application can be done online during 1st May 2020 to 15th January 2021.

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (25.09.2020) Covered month for the support fund and allowance were extended from September 2020 to December 2020. Similarly, the deadlines for application for each month were simplified and extended to 31th December 2020 for months before September; to  31th March 2021 for October, November and December.

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (14.07.2020) 80% of the wage before taking the leave (maximum daily amount 11 ,000 yen) will be paid according to the record of the leave forced to be taken. (limited to the leave taken between April 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020.) However the following two main conditions and others are required. 1. Employees of small and medium sized companies who were/are on leave during the period mentioned above due to the instruction of the employer.

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (09.10.2020) Single-parent temporary special allowance is paid to single-parent households if;

1. they receives child-rearing allowances of June 2020;

2. their child-rearing allowances of June 2020 are suspended due to receiving public pensions; or

3. their income dropped as low as child-rearing allowance beneficiaries.

Cabinet office (01.05.2020) Special supplement of 10,000 yen per a child is automatically added to child benefits. Beneficiaries who received a child benefit for April 2020 are entitled to the supplement. The government pays for the funding and local municipalities administers the supplement as well as original child benefit.

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (21.08.2020) "Kokoronomimi" is a portal site which provides comprehensive information and support for worker's mental health. It provides mental health care counselling services via chat and SNS to people who are anxious or stressed by Covid-19 .

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (17.07.2020) The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare introduces a new coronavirus infected person information grasp and management system (HER-SYS) as an urgent response in order to reduce the work burden of public health centers and to speed up information sharing.

nenkin.go.jp (26.06.2020) Japan Pension Service (JPS) is planning to give job opportunities to students who had their job offers cancelled or lost their part-time job due to COVID-19. JPS is planning to hire about 100 such students temporarily (from the end of June to the end of next March) and the students are supposed to do data entry and document checking in the specialized centers.

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (08.04.2020) The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has established an information and communication infrastructure centre (tentative name) in cooperation with the Cabinet Secretariat's IT Office. The system enables collecting information on hospital operation status, the situation of hospital beds and medical staff, the number of available medical equipment (ventilators, etc.) and medical materials (masks, protective clothing, etc.) from medical institutions nationwide (approximately 8,000 hospitals with 20 or more beds).