Government Subsidies
What is it?
The Free Childcare and Child Education Subsidy is an initiative that offers financial assistance to working families with children using kindergartens, nursery schools, daycare centres, certified children’s schools, and other such childcare facilities. The Japanese government initiative offers to reimburse families for the cost of childcare where all parents/guardians are in employment and unable to stay at home to look after children.
Each ward office will have different rules on the amount of work parents will need to be doing in order to apply for the subsidy, so please check the specific minimum number of hours you should work with your local authority.
Why is this important?
OWIS Osaka is registered with the prefecture and city government as a childcare facility and allows the parents of our students to potentially qualify for this subsidy. You can receive up to 37,000 yen each month for each child aged 3-5 learning at OWIS. The money comes as a reimbursement after the child’s tuition has been paid.
Children from 0 to 2 years who are exempt from resident tax are also reimbursed up to 42,000 yen per month under the subsidy.
How to apply
1. Apply for the Certification of the Need for Childcare from your local ward office
To be eligible, it is essential to obtain the “Certification of the Need for Childcare” from the municipal office where your family is registered (each ward office might have a slightly different name for the certificate).
You can apply for the “Certification of the Need for Childcare” immediately as soon as your child is enrolled.
Whilst you are there, please also verify with them the specific conditions required by your municipal office to receive the subsidy, including the names of the documents you will need. This process usually takes two to three weeks.
2. OWIS Admission Requirements
We have a multi-faceted application process that considers a variety of factors before determining whether or not your child will be admitted to OWIS. Of course, as with any school, we have basic requirements that must be met before an application be considered.
- Child’s Full Name (Japanese children please write Kanji and Furigana)
- Certified Parent’s Full Name (Japanese parents please write Kanji and Furigana)
- The date of approval for the “Certification of the Need for Childcare” (You can obtain certification at your local ward office)
- Child’s Date of Birth
- Date of Enrollment
- Class and Grade of child (Please write the full class name. For example Early Childhood Level 2, Early Childhood Level 1, or Kindergarten)
- Permanent Home Address (in Japan)
- Parents Phone Number
- Which months do you want the required documents to cover (Note, we cannot give the documents in advance. .e.g. July to Sep)
- Deadline of your submission (last date till you have to submit it to the city office. Your city office can give you this date)
- Required document names in full (You can obtain these at your local ward office. E.g. xx市・区認可外保育施設等保護者負担軽減補助金に係る在籍・利用証明書)
Parents are asked to make their requests by email. Please write “OWIS” and your child’s full name in the subject line when submitting your request.
We will not be able to proceed until we have all the information from you.
Parents do not need to send us the documents themselves. You can simply let us know the full names of which documents you require and we will download them from the government website. If it is difficult to type out the name of the document in Japanese, you can attach a picture of the document you received from the ward office.
Note, that you can make the request for the required documents at any time period that tuition has been paid for, however, we cannot give you the documents in advance of the months you want them for. This is because we need to provide the child’s school attendance rate on the document and so can only give you the documentation once those months have passed. This means, that when you apply to the school asking for three months of required documentation, you will only receive those documents at the end of that three-month period.
Please be aware that some ward offices may also have a deadline, and may not accept documents for childcare that happened a long time ago (See Point 10). So please check with them before asking us for documents.
The school will complete the documents you request and give them to your child’s teacher, who in turn, will put them in your child’s bag and notify you via Toddle.
3. Send the required subsidy documents to the Ward office
Send the completed documents to your local ward office to receive a reimbursement on the costs of childcare. You will receive the three-month reimbursement altogether as a single lump sum payment.
How often do I need to apply?
As different ward offices have different systems, it is best to check with your local authority on how often should submit the documents. Most ward offices accept the forms once every three months. So if that is true for your ward, for the sake of paperwork, please apply to the school by email once every three months and you will be able to continue receiving the subsidy.
Should you have any questions, please contact us using our contact form.
We are here to assist you.
