Paid Leave (Yukyu-Kyuka) and How It's Taken

Japan paid leave gives every employee a statutory minimum of paid days off that grows with tenure, starting at 10 days after six months.¹ The grant looks generous on paper, yet many workers still take far less than they are granted, which is why a 2019 reform now forces employers to make sure leave is actually used.²³

Confirm current details with official sources

Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). This article is general information, not legal, tax, or immigration advice; for your specific case, consult a licensed shakai hoken rōmushi (社会保険労務士, labor and social security attorney) or bengoshi (弁護士, lawyer) for contested denials or resignation-timing disputes.

Overview

This article covers annual paid leave for anyone employed in Japan, full-time or part-time, on any work-permitting status.¹⁴ The same national rules apply regardless of nationality or visa type, since the Labor Standards Act makes no distinction by nationality.¹⁴

The statute sets only the floor. Your employment contract or work rules may grant more than the 10 to 20 day statutory range, and many firms do.¹³ What varies company to company is the extra generosity and the request procedure, not the legal minimum itself.⁵

Annual paid leave is separate from weekly days off and national holidays. It is time you are otherwise obliged to work, taken as paid rest for any reason you choose.¹⁶³

Who qualifies and when leave accrues

You qualify once two gates are met together: six months of continuous employment from your hire date, and attendance of at least 80 percent of scheduled working days in that period.¹⁶⁵

Your reference date is personal. It runs from your own hire-date anniversary, not from a company-wide fiscal date.⁵ Some employers unify administration to April 1 for convenience, but they must advance grants so no worker ends up with less than the law requires.⁵

Full-time accrual trigger

The six-month clock starts on your first day of hire.¹ Renewed fixed-term chains count as continuous service, so short contracts renewed past six months still trigger the first grant.⁶

The 80 percent test is not strict physical presence. Work-injury medical absence and statutory childcare or family-care leave count as attendance when the rate is calculated.⁴

Part-time and short-hour proportional grants

Part-time workers qualify on the same six-month and 80 percent gates.⁶⁵ The difference is grant size, which scales with scheduled days under a proportional table.⁶⁵

The proportional table applies to workers with under 30 prescribed hours per week and under 4 prescribed days per week or under 216 prescribed days per year.⁵ The table below states the statutory minima as written (confirm current figures with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare). Workers at 30 or more hours per week are described in practitioner guidance as receiving the full-time schedule.⁵

Prescribed days per week	0.5 yr	1.5 yr	2.5 yr	3.5 yr	4.5 yr	5.5 yr	6.5+ yr
4 days (169-216 days/year)	7 days6	8 days6	9 days6	10 days6	12 days6	13 days6	15 days5
3 days (121-168 days/year)	5 days6	6 days6	6 days6	8 days6	9 days6	10 days6	11 days6
2 days (73-120 days/year)	3 days6	4 days6	4 days6	5 days6	6 days6	6 days6	7 days6
1 day (48-72 days/year)	1 day6	2 days6	2 days6	2 days6	3 days6	3 days6	3 days6

How many days you get: the statutory schedule

Full-time grants rise by tenure from 10 days at six months to 20 days at six and a half years and beyond.¹⁶⁵⁴³ Twenty days is the ceiling of the statutory floor, not a cap on what employers may offer.¹³

The table below states the statutory minima as written (as of the current Labor Standards Act text; confirm current figures with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare).¹

Continuous service	Statutory minimum grant
0.5 years	10 days1
1.5 years	11 days1
2.5 years	12 days1
3.5 years	14 days1
4.5 years	16 days1
5.5 years	18 days1
6.5 years or more	20 days1

Surveyed firms on average granted more than the floor. Average granted days were 17.6 in 2022, unchanged from 2021 (as of 2023-10; confirm current figures with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare).³⁷

Reading the grant table by tenure

Read the table by your own anniversary. Each yearly grant is a fresh entitlement added to any carried-over balance, subject to the two-year expiry covered next.⁵³

The following chart shows how the floor steps up over time.

Check your payslip for the live balance

Many employers print remaining paid-leave days on the monthly payslip so workers can see what is left.⁶ If yours does not, ask HR for the per-worker leave ledger balance before planning long absence.

Carryover, expiry, and resignation timing

Unused leave carries over to the next year only.⁵⁶ Each grant then expires two years after it accrues under Article 115, so every grant has a two-year shelf life.¹⁵

In practice this caps what you can hold at once. If 10 days went unused last year and 20 new days arrive this year, you hold 30 usable days.³ Days are consumed from the older grant first, so leave left too long simply lapses.³

Your employer must track this per worker in an annual paid-leave ledger recording the grant date, dates taken, and remaining balance.⁵⁴ Current MHLW guidance requires retaining each ledger for three years after the relevant period.⁸

How carryover math works in practice

Take the 10-plus-20 example above. If you use only 5 of the 30 days, those 5 come from the carried-over 10, and the other 5 carried-over days expire while the 20 new days roll forward one more year.³

There is no general statutory right to convert unused statutory leave into cash while employed.⁴ The ban protects actual rest; buying out the minimum would defeat the purpose.⁴ Payout is possible only at the edges: days above the statutory minimum, days already past expiry, or a resignation balance where your contract or work rules expressly provide for it.⁴

Do not assume unused leave converts to pay

If your contract and work rules say nothing about resignation payout, remaining days are for taking inside the notice period, not for cashing out.⁴ Calculate the balance early and fit the leave inside employment.

The 5-day rule: your employer must ensure leave is taken

Since April 1 2019, employers must ensure every worker granted 10 or more days in the year actually takes at least 5 days within one year of the grant date.²⁸⁵⁴ The duty covers managers, fixed-term staff, and part-time workers who reach 10 days through proportional grants.⁵

This shifted responsibility. Leave used to be framed as the worker's right to exercise; now the employer bears a compliance duty to manage and confirm uptake, backed by penalties.⁵

How employers comply in practice

Three paths count toward the five: your own voluntary request, a planned grant under a labor-management agreement, or employer designation of dates as a backstop.²⁵ Most firms monitor voluntary uptake first and designate only the shortfall.⁵

Designation is not unilateral scheduling. The employer must first hear your opinion and respect your wishes as far as possible.⁵ Half-day leave counts as 0.5 toward the five, while hourly leave does not count at all.⁵

A planned grant requires two steps: a work-rules provision allowing it, plus a written agreement with the majority union or majority representative.⁵ At least 5 days per worker must stay freely selectable; only the excess can be planned.⁵

The following chart shows the compliance sequence employers follow.

Failure carries a fine of up to 300,000 yen per affected worker.⁵⁴ Missing designation records can draw a separate fine up to 300,000 yen, and denying a properly requested leave can draw up to six months imprisonment or a fine up to 300,000 yen.⁴

How to request leave and when timing can shift

You hold the right to specify timing (時季指定権, jiki shitei ken).⁵ You do not need to state a reason, and the employer cannot in principle refuse your application.⁵

In practice, submit the leave request form (有給休暇申請書) through whatever channel your workplace uses, with the advance notice your work rules expect. Company rules commonly ask for days to a week ahead, though the statute itself sets no filing deadline.⁶³

What the employer can and cannot do

The employer's only tool is the timing-change right (時季変更権, jiki henkō ken) under Article 39.¹⁵ It may shift your requested date to another season only where granting it then would impede normal business operations.¹⁵⁶

The bar is high. Ordinary busyness or trouble finding cover is not enough.⁵ Courts weigh the nature of your duties, actual busyness, substitute difficulty, overlapping requests, and whether the employer tried to arrange cover first.⁵ Chronic understaffing counts as a management problem, not a justification.⁵

The right allows postponement only, never outright cancellation.⁵ Any contract clause purporting to bar leave requests outright is void.⁶

Retaliation for taking leave is barred in substance

Pay cuts, bonus or evaluation penalties, withholding attendance allowances, or adverse transfers because you took leave are prohibited.⁵ Courts ask whether the measure substantially undermines the leave system, not whether the paperwork labels it neutral.

Why taken leave lags behind granted leave

Granted leave has long exceeded taken leave in traditional workplaces. Survey-reported take-up sat near half for years, with examples including 49.5 percent in 2001 and 51.1 percent in 2017 (as of respective survey years; confirm current figures with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare).⁹

The post-reform picture has improved. Workers took 10.9 of 17.6 granted days on average in 2022, a 62.1 percent rate and the highest since 1984 (as of 2023-10).³⁷ The 2024 survey reports a 65.3 percent take-up rate (as of 2024 survey; confirm current figures with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare), with a government policy target of 70 percent by 2028.⁸

Cited drivers include workplace culture, staffing levels, and reluctance to burden colleagues.⁵⁹ The 2019 employer duty was designed to answer exactly that pattern by moving the burden from individual reluctance to managed compliance.⁵

Generosity above the floor is uneven. In a 2023 industry survey, 40.6 percent of international software engineers reported 20 or more days granted (as of 2023).³ That reflects company policy competing for talent, not the statutory schedule itself.³

Good to know

Taking leave just before resignation

Leave immediately before resignation remains valid.⁶ The employer generally cannot shift it because no alternative date exists after your last day.⁵ The narrow exception is an essential handover that objectively requires you and would seriously disrupt operations without you, as recognized in one 2009 district court case.⁵

No general statutory cash-out for unused leave

Do not plan on a payout unless your paperwork promises one.⁴ Statutory minima cannot be bought out while employed, and resignation payout needs an explicit contract or work-rules term.⁴ The practical move is to schedule remaining days inside the notice period.⁴

Leave during probation still accrues on the same clock

Probation does not restart the six-month clock. The grant date runs from initial hire, with no separate probation exception in the Article 39 grant rule.¹ This is national statute with no ward or municipal variance.¹

Sick days usually mean using yukyu, not a separate statutory sick leave

Japan has no general statutory paid sick leave.³ Short illness is normally covered by annual paid leave. Longer absence may invoke separate health-insurance support, but for day-to-day sickness the expectation is to use yukyu.³

See also

• Reading a Japanese Employment Contract
• Seishain, Keiyaku, Haken, and Arubaito: Japan's Employment Categories
• Japan Job Offer Letter and Work Rules (Shugyo Kisoku)
• Maternity, Paternity, and Childcare Leave
• Sickness Allowance (Shobyo-Teate-Kin)
• Fixed-Term vs. Permanent Contracts and the 5-Year Conversion Rule

References

Footnotes

1. Japanese Law Translation (Ministry of Justice). "Labor Standards Act" (労働基準法), Act No. 49 of 1947, as amended to Act No. 71 of 2018, Article 39 (Annual Paid Leave), Article 115 (Prescription), Supplementary Provisions Article 136 (disadvantageous treatment). https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/3567/en ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²²

2. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. "Work Style Reform outline materials: Ensuring workers take paid leave" (2019 reform enforcement materials, employer designation of 5 days). https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/11200000/001682150.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. TokyoDev / Keiko Kimoto. "Paid Leave and Vacations in Japan" (last updated 2026-09-04). https://www.tokyodev.com/articles/paid-leave-and-vacations-in-japan ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶

4. RSM Shiodome Partners. "Annual Paid Leave Compliance for Japanese Employers" (2024-02-27). https://www.rsm.global/japan/shiodome/en/insights/category/social-insurance-hr/annual-paid-leave-compliance-japanese-employers ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

5. MONOLITH LAW OFFICE. "Legal Framework and Practical Responses to Annual Paid Leave in Japanese Labor Law" (2025-10-11). https://monolith.law/en/general-corporate/labor-law-paid-leave-japan ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰ ↩³¹ ↩³² ↩³³ ↩³⁴ ↩³⁵ ↩³⁶ ↩³⁷

6. Osaka Labour Bureau, Labour Standards Department, Wage Division. "Encouraging Workers to Take Annual Paid Leave" (English). https://jsite.mhlw.go.jp/osaka-roudoukyoku/library/osaka-roudoukyoku/doc/foreign/pdf/yukyu_english.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰ ↩³¹ ↩³² ↩³³ ↩³⁴ ↩³⁵ ↩³⁶ ↩³⁷ ↩³⁸ ↩³⁹

7. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. "令和5年就労条件総合調査" (General Survey on Working Conditions 2023, published Oct 2023), via secondary reporting in ³. https://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/itiran/roudou/jikan/syurou/23/dl/gaikyou.pdf ↩ ↩²

8. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. "確かめよう労働条件：年次有給休暇" (Check working conditions: annual paid leave), noting April 2019 duty to grant at least 5 days within one year for workers granted 10 or more days. https://www.check-roudou.mhlw.go.jp/study/roudousya_yukyu.html ↩ ↩² ↩³

9. Takami Tomohiro (JILPT). "Current State of Working Hours and Work Style Reform in Japan," Japan Labor Issues vol. 9 no. 54 (2025-07-30). https://www.jil.go.jp/english/jli/documents/2025/054-05.pdf ↩ ↩²