Anyone knows about baby income

My husband is japanese and we live in Japan. Now I`m pregnant and I would like to ask about the Baby "income", I don@t know how to call it in japanese. We supposely have some money to receive from our City Office since we will have a baby, my question is since we are thinking having the baby outside Japan and return afterwards do we still have the right to receit this ammount? Thank you very much in advance!

As far as I've heard, as one of you is Japanese, you will be able to receive the money as long as you live in Japan regardless of where the child is born.

Hopefully someone more knowledgable than me will jump in to confirm, but I'm pretty sure that is how it works!

If you're in Japan now, you should ask your local city hall yourself. Try the foreign registration counter if you have language problems. My understanding is that all children can apply for it regardless of their nationality, but I could be wrong (their policy changes drastically from time to time!).

Thank you, we already asked but wanted to make sure.

It doesn't matter about the child or parent's nationalities. The child may not even need to be in Japan. The payment is made by the city you are resident in and pay taxes in and may be different for different cities. Normally it is paid quarterly, so depending on when a child is born, you may get nothing for the first 1-3 months. 2nd or 3rd children might get more than first children and it might decrease with older children and if your income is too high. Child benefit is probably around 15,000 yen a month plus there is a one time approx 400,000 yen gift after the birth. And sometimes extra payments, like as compensation because of the recent sales tax rise.

You also get extra monthly money for childcare if both parents are working and the child is in private child care and not subsidised (income dependent) child care if in a city run hoikuen.

As said by the wise poster above. Discuss with your city hall in advance, so you know the exact position, what forms to fill out, and when and where you need to do this.

You have to submit the forms in person, so if your husband is still working in Japanese, he can do it after you get birth certificate and child added to his koseki. They money would go to him. If you don't have the baby in Japan, then probably you don't get the birth gift money.

the money will be paid by health insurance of the mother.
if you have no heath insurance, then nothing.
if you are in national health insurance, it will be paid by national health insurance(i.e. from city office).
if you are in company's health insurance, it will be paid by that insurance.
regular health checks during the pregnancy period and delivery treatment are not covered by health insurance.
if you are in national health insurance, you go home to your country, and you cancel your residency when you are absent from Japan, you have no right to receive the money.

Although, pregnancy isn't covered by NHI (some private ones do), you do get vouchers to cover some of the cost clinic appointments during pregnancy. Doesn't apply if you don't use clinics/hospitals registered with national health scheme. Birth costs are not covered, but hospitals generally set their prices around the local value of the birth gift money and you can have this paid directly to the hospital.

Ann,

I was just wondering. Are you keeping your juu-min-hyo (residency registeration) in Japan while you are away to give birth to your baby? Perhaps that was the point of your question.

Usually, these public childcare support things are based on where your juu-min-hyo is and not where the baby actually pops out of the mother.

For example, it's very common for Japanese women to give birth in her hometown and then come back after a month or so. In this case, the baby usually has no tax-related support from its mother's hometown, but will earn support from its juuminhyo municipal.

Either way, again, check with your local city hall. Often municipals also offer unique support other than what the country provides, and you need to check on that too.