The Child Allowance: Paid From the Month After You Apply, at the Municipality Where You Are Registered

The child allowance (児童手当) is a benefit that municipalities pay to people who live in Japan and are raising children. From the October 2024 payment onward, it was expanded to cover children through their high-school-age years, and the income cap on the parent supporting the household was removed. Nationality is not one of the conditions. To receive it, however, you need to apply at the municipality where you live, and in principle the allowance is only paid from the month after you apply. The following is based on the 児童手当法 (via the e-Gov law search) and the official pages of the Children and Families Agency, the Government Public Relations Online service, and the Immigration Services Agency of Japan, confirmed in September 2026.

This article does not judge whether your household can receive the allowance, or how much. The municipality where you live (or, for public servants, your workplace) makes that determination.

Monthly amount and the months it is paid

According to the Children and Families Agency, the monthly amounts as of September 2026 are as follows.

“Third child onward” refers to the third and later children, counting from the oldest, among a child and their older siblings. An older sibling is counted up through the first March 31 after they turn 22, provided a parent or guardian is financially supporting them. To count an older sibling who has finished high school, you need to submit a document such as a “confirmation of custody-equivalent care and financial support.”

The allowance is paid six times a year, in even-numbered months (February, April, June, August, October, and December), covering the two months up to the previous month in a lump sum (児童手当法, Article 8, Paragraph 4).

What changed in October 2024

Government Public Relations Online sums up the expansion from the October 2024 payment onward in four points.

• Removal of the income cap: previously, if the income of the person mainly supporting the household was above a certain level, the amount received was limited; now the full amount is paid regardless of income.
• Extended through high-school age: previously, only children through middle-school age were covered.
• ¥30,000 a month for the third child onward: at the same time, how a “third child” is counted was also revised.
• Paid six times a year, in even-numbered months: previously, it was paid three times a year, four months’ worth at a time.

For people who newly needed to apply because of the revision, there was a transitional measure: applying by March 31, 2025 meant you could still receive the allowance from the October 2024 payment. That deadline has already passed. If you apply from now on, the ordinary rules explained below apply.

Who receives it

Article 4 of the 児童手当法 provides that the allowance is paid to a father or mother (or equivalent) who is caring for the child (in the law’s wording, exercising “custody”) and shares a livelihood with the child, and who has an address in Japan. The child, too, is required under Article 3 of the same Act to have an address in Japan in principle. The Immigration Services Agency’s 生活・就労ガイドブック (“Guidebook on Living and Working,” Japanese 8th edition) likewise explains that you can receive it when both the child and the person raising the child live in Japan.

How foreign nationals are treated

A notice from the then Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 児童手当法における外国人に係る事務の取扱いについて (“On the Handling of Administrative Matters Concerning Foreign Nationals Under the Child Allowance Act,” June 13, 2012, still listed by the Children and Families Agency as a related notice), states that foreign nationals, too, can receive the child allowance, and that the administrative handling is, in principle, the same as for Japanese nationals. It also states that a foreign national’s address is confirmed through the Basic Resident Register (住民基本台帳, the source of the certificate of residence, or juminhyo).

Article 30-45 of the Basic Resident Register Act lists, among the foreign nationals it covers for the purpose of the register, “mid- to long-term residents” who hold a residence card, and special permanent residents. Article 19-3 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act excludes people whose period of stay is three months or less, and people with the status “Temporary Visitor,” from “mid- to long-term residents.” In other words, while you remain on a Temporary Visitor status of residence, no certificate of residence is created for you. The change of status of residence for people who entered Japan from Ukraine on Temporary Visitor status is covered in the article on the residence-status procedures for people who evacuated. Once your certificate of residence is issued, apply for the child allowance promptly as well.

When a child is not in Japan

The Children and Families Agency’s Q&A states that, if a child is living overseas, the portion of the allowance for that child is, in principle, not paid. The exception is for study abroad, and applies only when all of the following are met: the child had an address in Japan for more than three years before leaving; the child is living overseas to receive an education and is not living with their parents; and it has been within three years since the child no longer had an address in Japan. If part of your family remains in Ukraine, check with your municipality about how the portion for a child not living in Japan is handled.

How to apply

When a child is born, or when you move in from another municipality, you submit a “benefit certification request” (認定請求書) to the municipality where you currently live (for public servants, to your workplace).

• The allowance is paid from the month after you apply: 児童手当法, Article 8, Paragraph 2. If your application is delayed, you cannot, in principle, receive the allowance for the months of the delay.
• The 15-day rule: Paragraph 3 of the same Article provides that, if you apply within 15 days of the day after you changed your address, you are paid from the month after you changed your address. The Children and Families Agency explains that, even if your birth date or the date you moved in falls near the end of the month and your application ends up being made the following month, if it is within 15 days you are still paid from the month you applied.
• Main documents to attach: for company employees and others, something that confirms enrollment in health insurance and a pension (such as a My Number card registered for use as a health insurance card, or a health insurance eligibility certificate). If you did not have a certificate of residence at your current municipality on January 1 of the year you apply (or, if applying between January and April, on January 1 of the previous year), you will be asked for an income certificate for the child allowance issued by your previous municipality. Other documents include something showing a financial institution account in the applicant’s name.
• Receiving account: in principle, an account in the name of the person claiming the allowance. It cannot be an account in the child’s name.

People who have only recently come to Japan may not be able to prepare an income certificate issued by a Japanese municipality. Ask at the municipal counter what to submit instead in that case.

What to report after you start receiving it

From the June 2022 payment onward, you are, in principle, no longer required to submit the annual “current-status report” (現況届) every June. However, people such as those living apart during divorce proceedings, or those the municipality has specifically asked, still need to submit it. Report the following to your municipality (Children and Families Agency).

• When you stop raising the child, or the child otherwise no longer qualifies
• When the address of the recipient, their spouse, the child, or an older sibling changes (including moving to another municipality or overseas)
• When your name changes
• When the pension the recipient is enrolled in changes (including becoming a public servant)

How things are handled when you leave Japan is set out in the 2012 notice mentioned above. If you deregister your certificate of residence and leave the country, your right to receive the allowance ends on that day. If you leave with re-entry permission, you are treated as having an address in Japan for as long as your certificate of residence remains valid, but if you do not return by the deadline, your right ends on the day your certificate of residence is deregistered, and the municipality may also seek repayment of the allowance retroactively to the date you left. If you plan to return to Ukraine temporarily, consult your municipality before leaving.

Some municipalities deduct items such as nursery fees from the child allowance before paying it out (Children and Families Agency Q&A).

A separate benefit: the child rearing allowance

Separately from the child allowance, there is a “child rearing allowance” (児童扱養手当) for single-parent households and others. The 生活・就労ガイドブック (“Guidebook on Living and Working”) explains that you can receive it if you are raising a child whose parents have divorced, whose father or mother has died, whose father or mother has a certain level of disability, or whose father or mother’s survival cannot be confirmed, among other cases. It is subject to an income cap, and the amount changes each fiscal year in line with prices. Check with your municipality about whether you qualify.

Where to ask

The counter for applications is the child allowance section of the municipality where you live. A leaflet the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare produced in Ukrainian, Japanese, and English, “You Can Receive Childcare Support Services” (posted on the Immigration Services Agency’s site), also has an entry on the child allowance. How to find a counter where you can consult in multiple languages is covered in the article on consultation counters for when you start living in Japan, and the vocabulary of resident registration is covered in the article on words that come up in Japan’s resident registration.