The following is the original text as published in 2020.
How are you spending this weekend?
I have been busy preparing subsidy materials for clients and introducing more IT systems at our office. Deciding which to prioritize is difficult at a time like this.
Even now, as 30,000 new COVID-19 cases and 2,000 deaths are reported daily in the United States, I am astonished by the resolve to lift restrictions and begin getting the economy moving again in order to restore normal life. Considering the negative consequences brought about by more than 20 million unemployed people, they must have chosen to keep the economy going even while accepting sacrifices. Each side has its own view of what is right, and I think it is a difficult issue with no right answer.
I have the impression that our country is gradually changing as well. Many times more people than before have returned to Shinjuku, and there is a little vitality. Today, for example, restaurants at lunchtime seem full, despite the spacing between seats. I feel that we may have entered a phase of gradually regaining everyday life while making changes suited to the post-COVID era.
Now then, there was a Tokyo subsidy that supports the cost of employees taking education and training courses, so I applied for it. It is called the Online Skills Development Support Program for SME Employees (Japanese). I am sharing the portions that can be made public, so please use them as a reference if you need them. Please note that our office assumes no responsibility whatsoever for any damage arising from use of this information. Please use the information at your own risk.
Overview of the subsidy
- Maximum of ¥320,000, with a four-fifths subsidy (excluding tax)
- Fees paid to outside providers for online courses and similar services
- Packages are eligible (individual customization is not eligible)
- It appears that courses you have already signed up for may also qualify if you apply by May 12. Normally, you first submit a grant application and have it checked, then enroll in the course and submit a claim for payment.
- Be careful: it appears that this cannot be used together with online courses that also receive the training supplement under the Employment Adjustment Subsidy.
- It does not appear that there is a particular requirement to include time spent studying in the course as working hours. Would using it as support for off-duty study as part of employee benefits be the most reasonable intended use?!
- If an eligible employee leaves partway through before the course is finished, you cannot receive it.
- Courses for qualification examinations related to the work are also eligible.
Eagle’s circumstances
- Our main business is accounting, a professional occupation, so many employees want to take courses for qualification examinations and similar study. There is strong interest in using this support.
- We invited interested employees to participate, explicitly stating that this e-learning was not work and would not count as working time, and requiring them to promise to complete the course and report on it (be careful: unless this is made clear, there seems to be a risk that it will later be treated as employer-required training and counted as working time). I overlooked one point at the time: looking back, we should have expressly required repayment if someone left before finishing the course...
Actual application documents
- Training record roster (TAC course participants; names not included), grant application form Form 1, training plan
- Training plan
- Training record roster (TAC course participants; names not included)
Matters of concern
- For some courses, the planned hours and curriculum are not clear, so it is a hassle to investigate or inquire how many hours each course comprises. In some cases, not all the information specified in the application requirements is available.
- A course with an administration dashboard would be fine, but for a course consisting only of DVDs and textbooks, it is unclear how to submit a completion report. I am thinking of sending a course record prepared by the participant, but it is unclear whether the subsidy will be paid on that basis.
Before long, I expect the application will be accepted and that I will receive notice of missing materials or incomplete entries. When that happens, I will update this article.
By the way, at Shinjuku City Office, documents such as tax-payment certificates had been subject to a fee until last week, but when I went to collect them this week, the issuance fee was waived merely by writing “COVID.” While I thought it would have been better to make it free earlier, because it is not free when issued at a convenience store, I suppose it was a difficult measure to handle. The person at the counter said that for COVID-related subsidies and loans as well, it is free if you write “COVID,” so let’s make use of it.
This application was approved for a grant on May 27, 2020. That was fast!