Injuries at Work and on Your Commute Are Covered by Rosai Insurance: 80% of Average Wages From Day 4 of Leave

When a person employed in Japan is injured at work or on the way to or from work, or becomes ill because of their job, workers’ accident compensation insurance (労災保険, rosai hoken) is the national system that covers treatment costs and compensates for lost income during time off. In its guidance for foreign nationals, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) states that rosai insurance applies to foreign nationals working as employees in Japan regardless of nationality, and that it also covers, for example, accidents during a part-time job (arubaito) held while studying.

What follows is based on the wording of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act (e-Gov Law Search), MHLW’s Guidebook for Filing Workers’ Accident Compensation Insurance Claims (Japanese edition, Part 1, February 2025), and the Guidebook on Living and Working (Japanese edition, 8th ed.), supervised by the Immigration Services Agency, checked in September 2026. This article does not judge whether a given injury or illness qualifies for rosai insurance; that is decided by the Labour Standards Inspection Office.

Part-Timers and Arubaito Workers Are Covered Too; the Company Pays the Premium

The Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act treats “an enterprise employing workers” as a covered enterprise (Article 3; direct national enterprises and government offices are excluded, with some exceptions). An MHLW leaflet states that any workplace employing even one worker, regardless of employment name or type — regular employee, part-timer, or arubaito — has a duty to enroll, and explains that rosai insurance covers all workers, including part-time workers. As an exception, part of the individually run forestry, fishing, and agriculture sector employing fewer than 5 workers is currently voluntary.

The company pays the entire premium. This differs from health insurance and employment insurance, where a portion is deducted from the employee’s pay. MHLW’s guidebook states that even if the company has not completed the rosai insurance enrollment procedure, a person injured or made ill at work or on their commute can, in principle, still receive benefits.

A person who is not employed — for instance, someone who takes on work as a sole proprietor — is not, in principle, covered. There is a “special enrollment” system, which MHLW describes, allowing small and medium-sized business owners, one-person contractors, freelancers, and others to enroll voluntarily. Which statuses of residence permit which kinds of work is covered in “Looking for Work at Hello Work.”

The Scope of “At Work” and “On Your Commute”

The law divides the accidents eligible for benefits into three: an “employment injury” (gyomu saigai) caused by work, a “multiple-employment-factor injury” caused by the combination of work at 2 or more employers, and a “commuting injury” (tsukin saigai) (Article 7).

“Commuting” means traveling between home and the workplace by a “reasonable route and method” for work. It also includes travel to a second workplace, and travel between the residence of a person on a single posting and their family’s residence (conditions apply). If you deviate from your route, or stop commuting to do something else, that time and the time after it are not treated as commuting. However, if you make an unavoidable, minimal detour for a daily necessity specified by MHLW ordinance — such as buying daily necessities, seeing a doctor, voting, vocational training, or caring for a family member — that time is excluded, but once you return to your original route it is again treated as commuting (Article 7, paragraph 3; Enforcement Regulations Article 8).

MHLW’s guidebook Q&A answers that a person injured on their commute after colliding with a bicycle can still receive benefits even if the other party cannot be identified, and that an injury on an unusual route can also qualify if certain requirements are met. The Guidebook on Living and Working states that mental disorders such as depression caused by work factors such as long working hours are also covered, and that an illness that develops after returning to your home country, if caused by your work in Japan, is also covered.

Use Rosai Insurance, Not Health Insurance

Health insurance cannot be used for an injury or illness caused by work or your commute. Both MHLW’s guidebook and the Guidebook on Living and Working state this clearly. The Health Insurance Act defines the scope of insurance benefits as illness or injury “other than” an employment injury under the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act (Article 1). Commuting injuries are also handled through rosai insurance.

Treatment is free at rosai hospitals and rosai-insurance-designated medical institutions (hereafter “designated institutions”). If you unavoidably receive treatment somewhere other than a designated institution, you pay yourself at first, and the full amount you paid is reimbursed when you claim it later.

Main Benefits, and Claim Deadlines

The “base daily wage” is, as a rule, your wages for the 3 months immediately before the accident divided by the calendar days in that period (average wage). In the guidebook’s example, for a person earning 200,000 yen a month who has an accident in October, 200,000 × 3 months ÷ 92 days comes to about 6,522 yen, and the daily leave payment, at 80% of that, comes to about 5,217 yen.

Rosai insurance does not pay for the first 3 days of leave. For these 3 days, if it is an employment injury, the company is required to pay 60% of the average wage as leave compensation (Labor Standards Act, Article 76). There is no such company compensation requirement for commuting injuries or multiple-employment-factor injuries. Also, for the leave benefit for a commuting injury, 200 yen is deducted from the first payment as a partial co-payment.

The Guidebook on Living and Working also states that while a worker is on leave to treat an employment injury or illness, and for the following 30 days, the company cannot dismiss that worker.

The Claims Process

The rosai insurance procedure is, as a rule, carried out by the injured person themselves. Following MHLW’s guidebook, the process is as follows.

1. Receive treatment at a designated institution. The claim form (Form No. 5 for an employment injury, Form No. 16-3 for a commuting injury) is submitted to the Labour Standards Inspection Office through the medical institution.
2. If treated somewhere other than a designated institution, pay first, then submit the claim form (Form No. 7 for an employment injury, Form No. 16-5 for a commuting injury) and the receipt directly to the Labour Standards Inspection Office yourself.
3. When you take time off work, have the doctor and the company certify the leave claim form (Form No. 8 for an employment injury, Form No. 16-6 for a commuting injury), and submit it directly to the Labour Standards Inspection Office yourself. For a commuting injury, you also need the “Details Concerning the Commuting Injury” (an attachment to Form No. 16).
4. The Labour Standards Inspection Office investigates and decides whether to pay. Claims for treatment and leave generally take about 1 month from acceptance to decision.

The claim form has a section for the company to certify. The guidebook answers that even if the company refuses to certify it, saying “this is not a work accident,” you can still file the claim, and advises consulting the Labour Standards Inspection Office or the Prefectural Labour Bureau. You can file a claim even after leaving the company, or after the company itself no longer exists. Even if the company says “we have another, non-rosai insurance,” you can still receive rosai insurance payments (though any treatment costs or leave compensation you received from the company may reduce or eliminate the payment).

The company also has obligations. When a worker dies or takes leave because of a work-related accident, the company must promptly submit a “Report of Employee Death or Injury” (労働者死傷病報告) to the chief of the Labour Standards Inspection Office. MHLW calls deliberately failing to submit this, or submitting false information, “労災かくし” (rosai kakushi, concealing a work accident), and treats it as a crime.

Claiming After Leaving Japan

MHLW’s guidebook warns: “Some benefits cannot be received once you return to your home country.” For a claim filed from outside Japan, the benefit is fixed in yen and converted at the exchange rate on the date the payment decision is made. Treatment received overseas is also paid for if its content is judged appropriate. However, the guidebook states that the following are limited to within Japan: aftercare (follow-up examinations and health guidance after recovery), the provision of costs for items such as prosthetics, post-symptom-stabilization surgical treatment, and support for a surviving child’s school expenses (where they attend a Japanese school).

What Changes From April 2027

An act amending the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act and others was enacted on July 10, 2026, and promulgated on July 17 (Act No. 60 of Reiwa 8). According to the summary of the bill published by the House of Councillors, the main points are as follows, and, with some exceptions, they take effect on April 1, 2027.

• Remove the condition that applied only to husbands among survivors eligible for the survivor compensation pension (that the wife be 55 or older, or in a certain state of disability, at the time of her death). When there is one surviving family member, the pension amount is unified at 175 days of the base daily wage.
• For illnesses designated by cabinet order as ones where it is not immediately clear whether they were caused by work, extend the statute of limitations for claiming treatment and leave benefits from 2 years to 5 years.
• Abolish the provisional measure that had made small-scale, individually run forestry, fishing, and agriculture voluntary (from a date set by cabinet order, within 5 years of promulgation).

Materials Available in Ukrainian, and Where to Consult

MHLW’s Guidebook for Filing Workers’ Accident Compensation Insurance Claims for foreign nationals is published in 14 languages: Japanese, English, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Persian, Spanish, Tagalog, Khmer, Nepali, and Burmese. As of September 2026, there are no Ukrainian or Russian editions.

The Guidebook on Living and Working, supervised by the Immigration Services Agency, has a Ukrainian edition, and it includes a section on rosai insurance. However, the Ukrainian edition is the 7th (March 2025), while the latest Japanese edition is the 8th.

The consultation and claims window for rosai insurance is the Labour Standards Inspection Office covering the place where you work. MHLW’s phone consultation service for labor conditions in foreign languages, and the languages it covers (Ukrainian is not among them), are covered in “The Rules That Protect People Working in Japan.” For a place to consult with an interpreter available, see “Where to Ask First When You Start Living in Japan.” For health insurance, which covers illness and injury unrelated to work, see “Japan’s Health Insurance and Pension.”