January 21, 2021

Akahata learned on January 20 that the Suga government decided to continue until the end of March the current special arrangements in the Employment Adjustment Subsidy (EAS) program which aims to help companies maintain jobs during the pandemic.

The Japanese Communist Party criticized the government plan to expire the exceptional measures at the end of February and demanded that the measures be continued until the pandemic situation is brought under control.

The EAS scheme is designed to assist companies in their efforts to avoid job cuts during the pandemic by subsidizing part of the leave allowance paid to employees. Under the special arrangements, the subsidy rate for small- and medium-sized businesses increased to 100% at the maximum with the upper limit of 15,000 yen per person per day.

Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide on January 20 at a plenary meeting of the House of Representatives said that the government will make a decision by the end of this month as to whether the exceptional measures continue after April.

The EAS special arrangements were originally planned to be terminated at the end of June last year. However, pushed by demands from struggling business owners and opposition parties, the government has repeated changing the expiration date of the special arrangements and recently decided to provide subsidies at the same rate as SMEs’ to major restaurant chains’ outlets in prefectures where a state of emergency has been declared.

Past related article:
> JCP Miyamoto urges gov’t to respond swiftly to worsening employment situation due to pandemic [August 19&20, 2020]