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Japan's Newborn Paperwork: What to File in the First 100 Days

By Leon MoriguchiPublished May 15, 2026Updated May 18, 20266 min read日本語版あり
Audience
Parents of a first child, within the first one to three months after birth

TL;DR

  • ·Japan's child welfare programs operate on application-only (shinsei-shugi: the principle in Japanese administrative law that government benefits accrue only when individuals actively file an application; eligible programs do not pay out automatically): birth registration does not trigger child allowance, and each benefit — allowance, infant medical subsidy, parental leave — requires a separate filing with its own deadline
  • ·The October 2024 child allowance reform removed income limits and extended eligibility to age 18, meaning significantly more families now qualify than under the previous scheme; the application deadline is 15 days after birth
  • ·Combining birth registration and child allowance application in a single municipal office visit, then returning once the health insurance card arrives, is the lowest-friction path through the first 100 days

Contents

  1. Lead
  2. The baseline: nothing happens automatically
  3. Birth registration — within 14 days
  4. Child allowance — confirm at the same visit
  5. Infant medical-fee subsidy — varies by municipality
  6. High-cost medical expense benefit — for NICU and extended hospitalization
  7. Parental-leave benefit — verify the schedule with HR
  8. Putting it into action
  9. Summary
  10. References

Lead

The weeks after hospital discharge are dense with paperwork — stacked on top of newborn care. Birth registration, child allowance, infant medical-fee subsidies, parental-leave benefits: each program has a different deadline, a different window, and no single official source that ties them all together.

"How many times do I have to go to the city office?" is a fair question. This article organizes the main administrative procedures triggered in Japan within the first 100 days after birth, in chronological order. Japanese residents are the primary audience; a note for Japanese nationals living abroad is included at the end.

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