“Welfare Benefits” that are common in Japanese Companies:

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The welfare benefits offered are an important point when choosing which company to join. Welfare benefits include those benefits required by law and those set by the company themselves. These include welfare benefits “only found at Japanese companies”. In this article, we provide a commentary on the types and content of “welfare benefits” in Japanese Companies.

What are welfare benefits?

“Welfare benefits” refer to compensation or service, in addition to wages, provided by a company to its employees. The aim is to stabilize the lifestyles of employees and their families from an economic and health perspective. Enriched benefits motivate employees to work harder and help to improve work efficiency. Welfare benefits also promise to improve the retention rate by deterring employees from leaving the company and helping to recruit excellent human resources.

Types of welfare benefits

There are two types of welfare benefits: “statutory benefits” and “non-statutory benefits”.

Statutory benefits

Welfare benefits determined by law are referred to as “statutory benefits”. In principle, the company will take care of the following costs.

• Health insurance premiums
  As a general rule, the employer will cover half of the cost of the premiums (this may be more depending on the health insurance association).
• Employee’s pension insurance premiums
  Employer covers half the cost of premiums
• Nursing care insurance premiums
  Employer covers half the cost of premiums
• Employment insurance premiums
  Employer covers a fixed amount（insurance premiums and contribution rates differ according to the type of employer）
• Workers’ compensation insurance premiums
  Employer covers total cost
• Child/child-rearing contributions
  Employer covers total cost

Non-statutory benefits

Welfare benefits that are not mandated by low, but are provided voluntarily by the company, are referred to as “non-statutory benefits”. For example, these may include the following:

• Housing benefit, rent support, company dormitories, single dormitories
• Commuter allowance, transportation fees
• Family allowance
• Company cafeteria, meal subsidies
• Congratulatory/condolence payments, disaster payments
• Marriage and maternity gifts
• Health check support
• Company trips, club activities, in-company recreation activities
• Non-statutory childcare/nursing care leave system
• Support for employees’ self-development and skill enhancement

As there are no particular fixed rules for non-statutory welfare benefits, there are companies introducing unique systems, such as “Siesta” and “study leave systems”. Additionally, The larger the company, the better the services provided tend to be.

Summary

On this occasion, we introduced the subject of welfare benefits in Japanese companies.

• Companies where salary is low, but they many welfare benefits
• Companies where salary is high, but welfare benefits are low

Which would you choose? When applying for jobs, you should not only check the compensation but also the benefits, and choose the company most closely suits your needs.