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Injured at work in Japan: workers’ accident compensation (労災)

If you are injured at work or on your way to work, or fall ill because of your work, your treatment and part of your pay are covered by Workers’ Accident Compensation Insurance (労災保険, rōsai hoken). Everyone employed in Japan has it — foreigners and students with a part-time job included — and your employer pays the whole premium. What to do on the first day, how much you get, which forms to file, and what to do if your company is against it.

What to do on the first day

Social insurance overview

Checked against the websites of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Immigration Services Agency on October 7, 2026 · Health insurance · Your rights at work

Treatment at a designated hospitalFree

Of your average daily wage from the 4th day off work80%

Your share of the premium — the employer pays it all¥0

After treatment ends, during which you cannot be dismissed30 days

In short

Workers’ accident compensation in five lines

  • Who is covered: everyone employed — full-time, fixed-term, part-time and side jobs (アルバイト, arubaito). Nationality and status of residence do not matter.
  • What it costs: nothing for you. The employer pays the whole premium, so it is not on your payslip.
  • What it covers: injuries and illnesses caused by work (業務災害, gyōmu saigai) and accidents on the way between home and work (通勤災害, tsūkin saigai).
  • What you get: free treatment until you recover and 80% of your average daily wage for days off from the 4th day; payments to you or your family in case of disability or death.
  • The key rule: after an injury at work, do not show your health insurance at the hospital — say it is rōsai.

Workers’ accident compensation and health insurance are two different things. Health Insurance (健康保険, kenkō hoken) and its injury and sickness allowance (傷病手当金) are only for illnesses and injuries that have nothing to do with work. More: health insurance in Japan.

Who and what is covered

Injury at work, on the way, or illness caused by work

Who is insured

Every employee

  • Full-time employees, fixed-term workers, part-time workers and side jobs.
  • Students with a part-time job, and spouses on a Dependent status who work part-time — at their own job.
  • Foreign workers on the same terms as Japanese workers. MHLW: not only people with a working status of residence but also international students with part-time jobs are covered.
  • Freelancers on a service contract (業務委託) are not insured as employees if they really work independently. Whether you are an employee is decided by how you actually work, not by the name of the contract. Since November 2024 freelancers can join Workers’ Accident Compensation Insurance voluntarily (特別加入, tokubetsu kanyū) and pay the premium themselves.

Which cases

Work, commuting, illness

  • At work: an injury during work or caused by it.
  • On the way: an accident between home and work.
  • Illness caused by work: occupational diseases, including mental illness (精神障害, seishin shōgai) from severe stress at work in roughly the 6 months before it began. Under the MHLW criteria, more than about 160 hours of overtime in the month before the illness counts as severe stress; harassment (パワハラ) counts too. The illness must also not be caused by things outside work.
  • Whether a case is rōsai is decided not by your employer but by the Labor Standards Inspection Office (労働基準監督署, rōdō kijun kantokusho).

What to do on the first day

Five steps after an injury

  1. Tell your employerTell your manager at once what happened, where and when. Write down the names of witnesses — the form asks for them.
  2. Go to a rōsai hospitalBest of all, a hospital or clinic designated for workers’ accident compensation (労災指定医療機関, rōsai shitei iryō kikan). Treatment there is free. Say at reception: 「労災です」 (rōsai desu) — “it is a work injury.”
  3. Do not show your health insuranceNeither the My Number Card as Health Insurance Certificate (マイナ保険証) nor the Health Insurance Eligibility Certificate (資格確認書) may be used for a work injury. If you already showed it, see step 5.
  4. Give the hospital form No. 5 (様式第5号)You fill it in, your employer confirms the accident, and the hospital sends it to the Labor Standards Inspection Office. For an accident on the way to work: form No. 16-3 (様式第16号の3).
  5. If you had to payIf the hospital does not handle rōsai, pay yourself and claim the money back from the inspection office with form No. 7 (on the way to work: No. 16-5). If you used health insurance, ask the hospital whether the treatment can be switched to rōsai.

If you used health insurance by mistake

  • The hospital can switch it: give it form No. 5 (or No. 16-3) — you get back what you paid at the desk.
  • The hospital cannot switch it: tell your health insurer (Kyōkai Kenpo, your company’s health insurance society, or the city office for National Health Insurance) that it was a work injury. The insurer sends you a bill for its share (usually 70%). Pay it and file form No. 7 with the receipts at the inspection office — rōsai repays the full amount.
  • If paying the full amount first is hard and the case has already been recognized as rōsai, say so at the inspection office: there is a way without paying everything up front.

Benefits

What workers’ accident compensation pays

For a work accident the names of the benefits contain the word 補償 (hoshō); for an accident on the way to work they do not — the amounts are the same.

What How much, and to whom
Treatment — 療養（補償）等給付 (ryōyō hoshō kyūfu) Free at a rōsai hospital: treatment, hospital stay, transport — until you recover or while treatment still helps. For an accident on the way to work, ¥200 is deducted from the first payment for days off
Days 1–3 off work Work accident: your employer pays 60% of your average daily wage. Accident on the way to work: the employer does not have to pay
From day 4 — 休業（補償）等給付 (kyūgyō hoshō kyūfu) 60% of your average daily wage + a 20% special payment (休業特別支給金) = 80% for each day you cannot work and are not paid
Disability — 障害（補償）等給付 If effects remain after treatment: a pension or a lump sum, depending on the grade of disability
Death — 遺族（補償）等給付 and 葬祭料 Payments to the family and for the funeral

Average daily wage (給付基礎日額, kyūfu kiso nichigaku) — your wages for the 3 months before the injury (or before the last pay cut-off date before it), divided by the number of calendar days in those months. Bonuses and one-off payments are not included.

Workers’ accident benefits are not taxed (Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act, Article 12-6).

Worked example

How much you get for a month off work

Salary ¥300,000 a month, pay cut-off at the end of the month. On October 1, 2026 you are injured at work and are off from October 1 to 30, with no pay for those days.

Step Amount
Wages for July, August, September 3 × ¥300,000 = ¥900,000
Calendar days 31 + 31 + 30 = 92
Average daily wage ¥900,000 ÷ 92 ≈ ¥9,783
Days 1–3: employer, 60% 3 × ¥5,869.8 ≈ ¥17,600
Days 4–30: rōsai, 60% 27 × ¥5,869.8 ≈ ¥158,500
Days 4–30: special payment, 20% 27 × ¥1,956.6 ≈ ¥52,800
Total for 30 days about ¥228,900 — instead of about ¥293,500 in normal work

That is about ¥7,800 a day — 80% of your normal pay. Treatment at a rōsai hospital is free on top of that. The exact amount is calculated by the Labor Standards Inspection Office from your employer’s data.

Forms

Which form to file, and what to write

Download the forms from the MHLW forms page (主要様式ダウンロードコーナー) or pick them up at the Labor Standards Inspection Office. File them at the office for your workplace — yourself or through the hospital.

What for Accident at work Accident on the way to work
Free treatment at a rōsai hospital 様式第5号 (No. 5) 様式第16号の3 (No. 16-3)
Getting back money you paid 様式第7号 (No. 7) 様式第16号の5 (No. 16-5)
Pay for days off work (from day 4) 様式第8号 (No. 8) 様式第16号の6 (No. 16-6)

Form No. 5: the fields in English

Field on the form What to write
労働保険番号 The company’s labor insurance number — your employer writes it.
労働者の氏名・生年月日・住所 Your name (as on your residence card), date of birth and address.
職種 Your job — as specifically as possible, so it is clear what you were doing.
負傷又は発病年月日・時刻 Date and exact time of the injury, marked 午前 (a.m.) or 午後 (p.m.).
災害の原因及び発生状況 What happened: where, what work you were doing, what went wrong and why, what the injury is. If you did not see a doctor the same day, explain why.
災害発生の事実を確認した者の職名・氏名 Who saw the accident or first learned of it: position and name.
指定病院等の名称・所在地 The rōsai hospital where you are treated.
事業の名称・事業場の所在地・事業主の氏名 Your employer’s confirmation: company name, address, name and title of the head.
その他就業先の有無 Whether you have other jobs: 有 — yes (and how many), 無 — no.

Form No. 8 (pay for days off) is similar but also asks for: 療養のため労働できなかった期間 — the period you could not work; 賃金を受けなかった日の日数 — the number of days without pay; 振込を希望する金融機関 — the bank and account for the payment (account holder’s name in katakana); 診療担当者の証明 — the doctor’s confirmation.

The official guide in English. MHLW publishes a guidebook for foreign workers on claiming workers’ accident compensation: Volume 1 — which benefits you can get (PDF) and Volume 2 — the benefits in detail (PDF). The same guide is on the MHLW page in Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Persian, Spanish, Tagalog, Cambodian, Nepali and Myanmar. It also warns that some benefits can no longer be received after you return to your home country — ask the inspection office before you leave Japan.

If your employer is against it

The inspection office decides, not the company

  • The company will not sign the form or tells you to use health insurance. File the claim with the Labor Standards Inspection Office yourself. MHLW says plainly that you can claim even if the company refuses to confirm the accident or has closed down.
  • Who to call. MHLW’s Workers’ Accident Insurance consultation line (労災保険相談ダイヤル): 0570-006031, Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., in Japanese. In English and other languages: the Telephone Consultation Service for Foreign Workers (English 0570-001-701, Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., paid call) and the free Labour Standards Advice Hotline (English 0120-531-401, weekdays 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., weekends and holidays 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.). In person: the inspection office for your workplace or a General Labor Consultation Corner, free. All lines and languages: free help at work.
  • Dismissal is prohibited while you are off work to treat an injury or illness caused by work, and for 30 days after you return. More: quitting or being dismissed.
  • Left the job — the right stays. By law, leaving a job does not change your right to rōsai benefits (Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act, Article 12-5). For later claims made after you have left, the company’s confirmation is not needed.

Deadlines, and what happens if you miss them

What When If you miss it
Getting back treatment costs (No. 7) 2 years from the day after you paid the money is not repaid
Pay for days off work (No. 8) 2 years from the day after each day off no payment for those days
Disability benefits, and family benefits after a death 5 years the right to the payment expires
Switching treatment from health insurance as early as possible later you first have to pay the insurer back its share

If you have a family

Spouse, children, parents: what changes

A dependent for tax and a dependent for health insurance are two different things with different income limits. All the rules for families: Family and dependents.

  • If a worker dies, the family receives survivor benefits (遺族（補償）等給付, izoku hoshō kyūfu) and a funeral payment (葬祭料, sōsairyō). Claim the survivor benefits within 5 years and the funeral payment within 2 years.
  • A spouse or children who work part-time themselves are covered by workers’ accident compensation at their own job — separately from you.
  • As long as you are on the company’s books, you and your dependents stay in its health insurance. For your family’s illnesses that have nothing to do with your work, use it as usual.
  • The 80% from day 4 replaces your salary: plan the family budget for income about one fifth lower while you are being treated.

Injury and your visa

Treatment alone does not cancel your status

Linked to your visa.

  • You stay an employee of the company: you cannot be dismissed during treatment and for 30 days after. The 14-day notification to immigration is filed when a contract ends or a new one is signed.
  • A status of residence is revoked if you do not do its activity for 3 months or more without a good reason. Keep the papers: doctor’s certificates, the rōsai benefit decision, letters with the company.
  • If your extension of period of stay falls during treatment, attach these documents and explain why you were not working.
  • Specified Skilled Worker: if you cannot work for a month or more, including because of a work injury, your employer must file a notification and an explanation with immigration. If it was filed on time, the time spent treating a work injury (up to 3 years) may, at your request, be left out of the 5-year limit of Specified Skilled Worker (i) — immigration decides.

Extending your period of stay · Notifications · Specified Skilled Worker

FAQ

Questions about workers’ accident compensation

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Ask us a question

Am I covered by workers’ accident compensation as a foreigner or a student?

Yes. Everyone who works as an employee in Japan is covered, whatever their nationality, including international students and spouses with a part-time job. Your employer pays the whole premium, and you do not need to have joined anything yourself.

Say it is a work injury (rōsai) and do not show your health insurance. At a designated rōsai hospital, treatment is free once you hand in form No. 5 (No. 16-3 for an accident on the way to work), which your employer confirms.

From the 4th day off, 60% of your average daily wage plus a 20% special payment, so about 80%. For a work accident your employer pays 60% for days 1 to 3. The average daily wage is your pay for the last 3 months divided by the calendar days, without bonuses.

Yes, an accident on the usual route between home and work is a commuting accident and is covered with the same amounts. The differences: the employer does not pay days 1 to 3, and ¥200 is deducted from the first payment for days off.

File the claim with the Labor Standards Inspection Office yourself: you can claim even if the company refuses to confirm the accident or has closed. Whether it is a work injury is decided by the inspection office, not by your employer.

No. Dismissal is prohibited while you are off work to treat a work injury or work-related illness and for 30 days after you return. If you leave the job anyway, your right to the benefits does not change.

Yes. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare publishes a two-volume guidebook for foreign workers in English and 12 other languages, including Vietnamese, Nepali, Tagalog, Indonesian and Myanmar. The links are on this page and in the sources.

Sources

Where this information comes from

Rates, limits and deadlines on this page were checked against the official websites of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Labor Bureaus and the Immigration Services Agency on October 7, 2026. Amounts are in Japanese yen. When a rule changes we update the page and the date above.

This page is general information. Your employer, the health insurance association, the Japan Pension Service and your city office decide your actual premiums and benefits. A Labor and Social Security Attorney (社会保険労務士, sharōshi) can help with a dispute.

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