Winding up a company — what to do about social insurance and labour insurance

In short: When you wind up a company, three filings are needed: the notification of total loss of covered workplace status (適用事業所全喪届) for social insurance, the notification of abolition of a covered workplace (適用事業所廃止届) for employment insurance, and the final insurance premium return (確定保険料申告書) for labour insurance. Notifications of loss of insured status for the insured persons are filed separately, one per person. These deadlines fall before the registration is done.

There are plenty of articles on the procedures for setting a company up, but not many on the procedures for winding one down. That is probably because closures come up less often — but the deadlines include some that are shorter than at the start-up stage, and if you wait for the registration to be completed, you will miss them.

Which notifications are needed when you wind up a company?

They fall broadly into three streams. The filing destination and the deadline differ for each.

What	Where	By when	Basis
Health insurance / employees' pension insurance notification of total loss of covered workplace status (適用事業所全喪届)	The administration centre or the pension office with jurisdiction	Within 5 days of the day the fact arose	Regulation for Enforcement of the Health Insurance Act, Article 20, paragraph 1 / Regulation for Enforcement of the Employees' Pension Insurance Act, Article 13-2, paragraph 1
Employment insurance notification of abolition of a covered workplace (適用事業所廃止届)	The Hello Work with jurisdiction over the location of the workplace	Within 10 days counting from the day after the day of abolition	Regulation for Enforcement of the Employment Insurance Act, Article 141, paragraph 1
Labour insurance final insurance premium return (確定保険料申告書)	Any of the competent labour standards inspection office, the competent prefectural labour bureau, or the Bank of Japan	Within 50 days of the day the insurance relationship was extinguished	Act on Collection of Insurance Premiums of Labour Insurance, Article 19, paragraph 1

There is one point here that is widely misunderstood. There is no such notification as a "labour insurance notification of extinction of the insurance relationship" (労働保険 保険関係消滅届).

The labour insurance relationship is extinguished by operation of law on the day after the business is abolished or terminated (Act on Collection of Insurance Premiums of Labour Insurance, Article 5). It is not something you file to have cancelled, so no form of "notification of extinction" exists in the first place. In practice, you convey the fact of the abolition by entering the date of abolition in the "date of abolition of business, etc." field of the final insurance premium return.

There is an "application for extinction of the insurance relationship" (保険関係消滅申請書, Form No. 27), but that belongs to a scheme confined to provisional voluntarily covered businesses under employment insurance, and it requires the consent of three-quarters or more of the workers and official approval (Supplementary Provisions, Article 4 of the Collection Act). It is not used for compulsorily covered businesses. The names are similar, so take care if you come across it in a search.

What is the order, and what are the deadlines?

The "day the insurance relationship was extinguished" is the day after the day of abolition, so the 50 days are counted from there as well. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's handbook likewise states "within 50 days counting from the day after the day the business was abolished."

The order in which you actually move is as follows.

1. Fix the employees' dates of resignation (this is the starting point)
2. File the employees' notifications of loss of insured status (social insurance and employment insurance — see below)
3. Prepare the final insurance premium return. Where the amount paid as the estimated premium exceeds the final amount, file the application for refund of labour insurance premiums (Form No. 8) at the same time
4. File the notification of total loss of covered workplace status. At this point, a copy of the final insurance premium return (bearing the date of abolition of business, etc.) is required as the document evidencing the fact
5. File the employment insurance notification of abolition of a covered workplace

Note the order of 3 and 4. Because a copy of the final insurance premium return is required as an attachment to the notification of total loss, social insurance cannot be completed until labour insurance has been dealt with first. Reverse the two and you generate a round trip.

The employment insurance notification of abolition also applies where "the business continues but the number of employees has fallen to 0." The Ministry's handbook says the notification of abolition is also filed where there are no longer any insured persons and no prospect of employment, and where the business has been suspended with no prospect of resumption. That is a separate question from whether the corporate entity still exists.

What has to be filed for the employees?

They are filed separately, one per person. The deadlines differ from those for the workplace-level notifications.

What	By when	Basis
Health insurance / employees' pension insurance notification of loss of insured status (被保険者資格喪失届)	Within 5 days of the day the fact arose	Regulation for Enforcement of the Health Insurance Act, Article 29, paragraph 1 / Regulation for Enforcement of the Employees' Pension Insurance Act, Article 22, paragraph 1
Employment insurance notification of loss of insured status (被保険者資格喪失届)	Within 10 days counting from the day after the day the fact arose	Regulation for Enforcement of the Employment Insurance Act, Article 7, paragraph 1

The employment insurance notification of loss of insured status is as a rule accompanied by a separation certificate (離職証明書, Form No. 5). It may be omitted where the person does not wish a separation slip to be issued, but it may not be omitted for an insured person who is 59 or older on the date of separation (paragraph 3 of the same Article). Resignations on a closure often include people around the age of 60, and this comes up frequently in practice.

How the reason for separation is written also bears directly on the person's unemployment benefits — whether it is at the company's convenience or the person's own, and whether it accompanies the abolition of the workplace. Not writing anything contrary to the facts comes first, but because the way the facts are written changes the conditions on which the person receives benefits, it is safer to check this from the stage at which the dates of resignation are fixed.

How does this divide from registration and tax?

It does divide. Winding up a company means at least three streams running in parallel.

Stream	Content	Whose work it is
Labour and social insurance	Notification of total loss, notification of abolition, final insurance premium, notifications of loss of insured status	Shakai Hoken Roumushi (Certified Social Insurance and Labor Consultant)
Registration	Registration of dissolution, registration of liquidators, registration of completion of liquidation	A judicial scrivener
Tax	Notification of change, returns for the liquidation business years, the final tax return	A tax accountant

We handle only the first row. For registration we will point you to a judicial scrivener and for tax to a tax accountant, each of whom you engage directly. We do not receive referral fees. 四葉行政書士事務所 and this office are separate business entities, so even where you instruct both, you do so under separate contracts, and each accepts the work separately.

Just one point on timing to fix in advance. If you start the labour and social insurance procedures after the registration of dissolution is complete, the 5-day and 10-day deadlines may already have passed. Once the employees' dates of resignation are fixed, the labour and social insurance side can start moving. There is no need to wait for the registration to be completed.

The notifications and deadlines when you set a company up are collected in Once you have set up a company, what do you have to file and by when. Please also note there that the documents required at the entrance and at the exit do not map neatly onto one another.

Frequently asked questions

Q. After all the employees have left, only the president remains. Do we file the notification of total loss?
A. So long as the entity is a company and remuneration is paid to the representative, it remains a covered workplace for social insurance, so at that point you do not get as far as filing a notification of total loss. Employment insurance, on the other hand, no longer has any insured person, so if there is no prospect of employment it becomes subject to the notification of abolition of a covered workplace. This is the situation where social insurance and employment insurance come to different conclusions.

Q. We are only suspending operations and intend to resume in due course. Are notifications still needed?
A. The treatment differs according to whether there is a prospect of resumption. The Ministry's handbook treats a business suspended with no prospect of resumption as subject to the notification of abolition. Where there is a prospect, the treatment depends on the length of the suspension and the position of the insured persons, so that is a point to be confirmed case by case.

Q. We are winding up several companies. Can we file for them together?
A. Notifications are per workplace (per labour insurance number and per workplace reference number). They cannot be filed together in a single document. That said, aligning the dates of abolition aligns the calculation periods for the final insurance premium and the dates of loss of insured status, which makes the work easier in practice. This is a situation where it is quicker to consider the scheduling together from the outset. For fees, see the fee schedule.

Q. We paid too much in estimated labour insurance premiums. Do we get it back?
A. Where the final premium falls below the estimated premium, the difference is subject to set-off or refund. To obtain a refund, file the application for refund of labour insurance premiums (Form No. 8) at the same time as the final insurance premium return. Claiming afterwards adds work, so do the calculation at the stage when you prepare the final return.

Sources for this article

• Regulation for Enforcement of the Health Insurance Act (健康保険法施行規則, Ordinance of the Ministry of Home Affairs No. 36 of 1926), Article 20, paragraph 1 (notification of total loss) and Article 29, paragraph 1 (notification of loss of insured status)
• Regulation for Enforcement of the Employees' Pension Insurance Act (厚生年金保険法施行規則, Ordinance of the Ministry of Health and Welfare No. 37 of 1954), Article 13-2, paragraph 1 (notification of total loss) and Article 22, paragraph 1 (notification of loss of insured status)
• Regulation for Enforcement of the Employment Insurance Act (雇用保険法施行規則, Ordinance of the Ministry of Labour No. 3 of 1975), Article 141, paragraph 1 (notification of abolition of a covered workplace) and Article 7, paragraphs 1 and 3 (notification of loss of insured status and separation certificate)
• Act on Collection of Insurance Premiums of Labour Insurance (労働保険の保険料の徴収等に関する法律, Act No. 84 of 1969), Article 5 (extinction of the insurance relationship), Article 19, paragraph 1 (final insurance premium), Supplementary Provisions, Article 4 (application for extinction of the insurance relationship for a provisional voluntarily covered business)
• Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, "Handbook of employment insurance administrative procedures, Volume 1: covered workplaces, August 2025 (Reiwa 7) edition" (filing dates; treatment where there are 0 insured persons or the business is suspended)
• Japan Pension Service, "Procedures where a covered workplace ceases to be a covered workplace due to abolition or other reasons" (timing of filing, filing destination, attachments)
• All provisions are those in force as confirmed through e-Gov law search as of 13 August 2026

This article stops short of deciding who you should consult. The labour and social insurance notifications, the calculation of the final insurance premium, and putting the reasons for separation in order are the work of a Shakai Hoken Roumushi (Certified Social Insurance and Labor Consultant). For the registration of dissolution and liquidation we will point you to a judicial scrivener, and for tax matters such as the returns for the liquidation business years to a tax accountant, each of whom you engage directly under a separate contract. We do not receive referral fees. Fees for consulting 四葉社会保険労務士事務所 are set out in the fee schedule, and the questions we are asked most often are collected in frequently asked questions.

This article is general information. A judgement on your particular circumstances is made by a qualified professional after a meeting. Written by Joji Uramatsu (Shakai Hoken Roumushi (Certified Social Insurance and Labor Consultant), Gyoseishoshi (Certified Administrative Procedures Legal Specialist), Registered Real Estate Transaction Specialist).