When an employee takes leave for mental health reasons — injury and sickness allowance, handling the leave period, and returning to work

Bottom line first: When you receive a medical certificate citing mental health problems, the first thing to check is your work rules on leave of absence (kyushoku). Leave of absence is not a nationwide statutory scheme — much of it depends on what your own company has laid down. The decision to allow a return to work is likewise not something to settle mechanically on the strength of the attending physician's certificate alone.

Once the leave begins, you work through the treatment of wages, social insurance premiums, the injury and sickness allowance (傷病手当金 / shobyo teate kin), how you will stay in contact with the employee, and how health information will be handled. When the employee returns, you check their capacity to perform the work and the workplace's readiness to receive them, against the actual conditions — the duties they hold, working hours, and commuting. Where individual legal judgments arise — expiry of the leave period, resignation, dismissal — please consult a lawyer.

This article is limited to what a company checks after an employee has gone on leave for mental health reasons, from the start of leave through the return to work. For identifying problems before they arise, see our article on stress checks. For where to turn when resignation or dismissal becomes contested, see our article on who to consult about dismissal.

A medical certificate for mental health problems has arrived. What does the company do first?

When you receive the certificate, review its contents and, at the same time, check your work rules and leave-of-absence provisions. Confirm, in the wording of those provisions: whether the diagnosis falls within the grounds for leave; whether leave is ordered by the company or granted on the employee's application with the company's approval; and how the start date and the length of the period are counted. The certificate is an important piece of evidence, but this is not a scheme in which leave begins automatically on the day it is submitted.

Items to check:

• What the certificate states (diagnosis, the period of treatment required, and whether it addresses fitness for work)
• Whether the case falls within the grounds for leave in the work rules
• Who orders the leave, and by what document
• How the start date is counted, and whether absences preceding it are aggregated under your provisions
• The length of leave available, and provisions on extension and on aggregation where the illness recurs
• The company's point of contact (consolidate this with a specific person in HR rather than the employee's direct supervisor)
• How medical certificates and other health information will be received and stored

If the employee has annual paid leave remaining, whether to use it before going on leave is a matter to confirm with them. It also bears on the waiting period for the injury and sickness allowance, so consider it together with the section below.

On work rules themselves, see our article on work rules.

Is leave of absence fixed uniformly by law?

The Labor Standards Act (労働基準法) contains no provision requiring every company to establish a leave-of-absence scheme. Article 89 of that Act sets out the matters to be stated in the work rules, and item 10 is worded as follows: "in addition to the matters listed in the preceding items, where provisions are made that apply to all workers at the workplace concerned, matters relating thereto." In other words, it is a conditional item: you state it in your work rules if you choose to establish it.

Consequently, all of the following differ from company to company:

• Grounds for leave (whether limited to non-work-related illness or injury; whether length of service makes a difference)
• The length of leave available, and whether it may be extended
• The requirements for returning to work, and the procedure for approving a return
• Aggregation where the employee takes leave again for the same cause after returning
• What happens when the leave period expires

By contrast, Article 89 item 3 — "matters concerning retirement (including grounds for dismissal)" — is a required item regardless of whether such provisions are made. The treatment on expiry of a leave period also touches on this item 3. Because the outcome can turn on how your provisions are drafted, read your own text.

Note that the obligation to draw up and file work rules is assessed per workplace (jigyojo). Even at a workplace with fewer than 10 employees on a regular basis, where there is no obligation to draw them up, having leave provisions in place makes the decision faster when someone does fall ill.

What happens to wages and social insurance premiums during leave?

The treatment of wages during leave is determined by checking your work rules, wage regulations, and the labor contract. The law does not uniformly decide that leave is "always unpaid" or "always paid." Read your own provisions first, and explain them to the employee before the leave begins.

Social insurance works differently. Where the employment relationship and insured status continue, taking leave for a non-work-related illness does not, by itself, mean insured status is lost as a matter of course, and in principle the obligation to pay social insurance premiums continues. Even in a month with no wage payment, the employee's share can still arise.

A common confusion here is the premium exemption scheme. What the Japan Pension Service presents as premium exemption applies to periods of maternity leave before and after childbirth and to childcare leave; leave for non-work-related illness is not listed there. Do not proceed on the assumption that "premiums are exempted while on leave."

How you will collect the employee's share should be settled before the leave begins, after checking the law and your own provisions and explaining the matter to the employee. Record what you agree in writing. The injury and sickness allowance is paid into the employee's own account, so it is not structured in a way that lets the company deduct from it automatically.

The handling of special collection of resident tax, and effects on year-end adjustment, are tax matters. Please consult a tax accountant (zeirishi).

When can the injury and sickness allowance be used?

The injury and sickness allowance is a Health Insurance benefit paid when a person cannot perform their work because of treatment for a non-work-related illness or injury. Article 99, paragraph 1 of the Health Insurance Act (健康保険法) provides that it is paid from the day on which three days have elapsed, counting from the day the person became unable to perform their work. Those first three days are the "waiting period."

The Japan Health Insurance Association (協会けんぽ) lists the conditions as: absence for treatment of an illness or injury arising from a non-work-related cause; inability to work; being unable to work for four or more days including three consecutive days; and no wages paid for the period of absence.

Two points about the waiting period are commonly misunderstood:

• The waiting period includes annual paid leave and scheduled days off such as weekends and public holidays. Whether wages were paid is irrelevant
• The three days must nevertheless be consecutive. If the employee is absent for two days and then works on the third, the waiting period is not established

The amount is set by Article 99, paragraph 2 of the Health Insurance Act: two-thirds of one-thirtieth of the average of the monthly standard remuneration for each of the most recent 12 consecutive months up to and including the month containing the day on which payment begins. Where standard monthly remuneration has been set for fewer than 12 months, the proviso to the same paragraph applies a different calculation (two-thirds of the lower of the amounts listed in the items). Check this point for employees who joined recently.

There is also an adjustment against periods in which wages are paid. Article 108, paragraph 1 of the Health Insurance Act provides that the allowance is not paid for a period in which the person can receive all or part of their remuneration, but that where that remuneration is lower than the amount calculated under Article 99, paragraph 2, the difference is paid.

The payment period is one year and six months in aggregate from the day payment began, for the same illness or injury (Article 99, paragraph 4). This aggregation was introduced by the Act Partially Amending the Health Insurance Act and Other Acts to Build a Social Security System Responsive to All Generations (全世代対応型の社会保障制度を構築するための健康保険法等の一部を改正する法律, Act No. 66 of 2021) and has applied since 1 January 2022.

The injury and sickness allowance is a benefit for the insured person. The employee can apply themselves, and may also engage a certified social insurance and labor consultant (社会保険労務士 / sharoushi) to prepare and submit the application on their behalf. Either way, in addition to the insured person's own entries, the application requires the employer's certification and the opinion of the treating provider. (As of August 2026, the Japan Health Insurance Association form runs to four pages, with one page each for the employer's entries and the treating provider's entries.) Because the employer's certification is required, this is administrative work that will arise during the leave. Organize the application cycle and the required documents at the start of the leave.

As for voluntarily continuing insured persons, Article 99, paragraph 1 of the Health Insurance Act excludes them in a parenthetical clause. An illness or injury newly arising during the voluntary continuation period is, in principle, not covered. On the other hand, where the requirements for continued benefits after loss of insured status are met — for instance where the person was already receiving the allowance before leaving the company — the remaining period may still be payable after departure. The requirements differ case by case; please confirm the details with your insurer.

Where the cause is work-related, this falls under workers' accident compensation insurance and is a separate scheme from the injury and sickness allowance. Recognition of mental disorders as work-related is decided case by case and is not covered in this article.

How much contact may the company have with the employee during leave?

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's "Guide to Supporting the Return to Work of Workers Who Have Taken Leave Due to Mental Health Problems" (心の健康問題により休業した労働者の職場復帰支援の手引き) places care from the start of and during the leave at Step 1, and indicates providing necessary information and responding to consultations. Contact is not the problem in itself; what divides good practice from bad is whether it is arranged so as not to interfere with the employee's recovery.

At the point the leave begins, settle the following and share it with the employee:

• Who the point of contact will be (a direct supervisor as the contact tends to weigh on the employee, so consolidate this in HR or similar)
• Frequency and method (whether email, post, or telephone will be the default)
• Matters the company will always be in touch about (when the next certificate is due, the employee's share of social insurance premiums, the application cycle for the injury and sickness allowance, notice before the leave period expires)
• Matters you would like the employee to raise (a change in the outlook for recovery; a wish to return to work)

Keep what you ask about to "the outlook for recovery" and "matters relating to work," and avoid repeatedly probing the details of symptoms. Where a family member acts as the contact, confirm the employee's consent.

How widely may health information such as certificates and diagnoses be shared internally?

Article 104, paragraph 1 of the Industrial Safety and Health Act (労働安全衛生法) provides that information on a worker's physical and mental condition must be collected "within the scope necessary to secure the worker's health," and stored and used "within the scope of the purpose of that collection." The guideline issued under paragraph 3 of the same Article — the Guideline on Measures to Be Taken by Employers for the Proper Handling of Information on Workers' Physical and Mental Condition (Public Notice No. 1 of 7 September 2018; amended by Public Notice No. 2 of 31 March 2022) — states the purpose of handling such information as "implementing measures to secure workers' health and performing the employer's civil-law duty of care for safety," and says it is appropriate to define who handles the information, their authority, and the scope of information handled.

The most usable idea in practice is the guideline's concept of "processing" information. It gives the example of replacing the content provided — rather than the record itself — with "the physician's opinion on workplace measures in light of the presence of findings and the test results." In the return-to-work context, an effective approach is to share with line managers not the diagnosis or the certificate itself, but a processed form: the workplace measures needed and any restrictions on duties.

There are cases where a diagnosis or similar does need to be shared. Where it does, confirm the following first:

• The purpose for which it is shared
• Who will handle it, and the scope of their authority
• What the necessary scope is
• How the matter will be explained to the employee

Also settle where the information is stored, who may access it, and how long it is retained. Medical history falls within "special care-required personal information" under Article 2, paragraph 3 of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (個人情報の保護に関する法律). Do not circulate it as you would other HR information.

If the attending physician writes "fit to return," does the employee simply return?

The Ministry's guide is explicit on this point.

A diagnosis by the attending physician often judges the possibility of returning to work by the degree of recovery of symptoms in daily life, and is not necessarily a judgment that the worker has recovered to the level of work performance capacity required in the workplace.

The certificate is an important document. But the words "fit to return" on it do not in themselves mean an automatic return.

At the same time, avoid the opposite oversimplification. Deciding that "the employee cannot do their current job exactly as before, so a return cannot be approved" often means the checking has not been completed. The items a company looks at include:

• Whether the labor contract limits the employee to particular duties
• Whether workplace measures — shorter hours, restrictions on overtime, business travel, or night work — can cover the gap
• Whether there is scope to place the employee somewhere other than their current post
• Whether the workplace is ready to receive them (handover, chain of command, who will follow up)
• The burden of commuting, workload, and the degree of contact with others

When seeking the attending physician's opinion, put the question with the company's information attached: the content of the duties, working hours, commuting time, and how busy the role is. The guide includes a model form for requesting information for return-to-work support. In every case, the employee's consent is a precondition.

How far you should consider transfers or workplace measures, and whether you can decide not to approve a return, vary with the terms of the labor contract and the individual circumstances. Where that line becomes contested, please consult a lawyer. Medical judgments are made by physicians.

What are the five steps to returning to work?

The Ministry's guide (revised July 2012) organizes return-to-work support into five steps.

Table A: The five steps of return-to-work support

Step	Name	What the company mainly does
1	Start of sick leave and care during leave	Leave procedures, injury and sickness allowance administration, agreeing on contact arrangements
2	The attending physician's judgment that return to work is possible	Receiving the application to return and the certificate, providing information about the work
3	Judging whether return is possible, and preparing the return-to-work support plan	Confirming work performance capacity, considering placement, drawing up the plan
4	Final decision on return to work	Deciding workplace measures, explaining them to the employee, recording
5	Follow-up after return to work	Interviews, checking how the plan is working and revising it

Steps 3 and 5 are where companies most often stall. Step 3 demands judgment and plan-drafting at the same time; Step 5 is the one most easily lost in day-to-day work.

How long a return takes differs by company. Do not fix a number of days in advance; build the schedule around the time Step 3 will need.

What goes into the return-to-work support plan?

The guide lists the following items for the return-to-work support plan:

(a) the return date; (b) workplace consideration by line managers; (c) personnel and labor management responses; (d) opinions from a medical standpoint by the occupational physician or equivalent; (e) follow-up; (f) other matters.

Points of reference when making these concrete:

• Set a defined period over which workload and duties are restored in stages
• How long restrictions on overtime, business travel, and night work will remain
• How time for hospital visits will be secured
• The frequency of regular interviews and who conducts them
• Fix the date for re-evaluation in advance
• Decide in advance how performance evaluation and pay will be handled, and explain this to the employee

"Consideration" is not the same as accepting every wish the employee expresses. It is decided by weighing medical opinion, business necessity, and what the company can accommodate.

In addition, where the employee's condition falls within "person with a disability" under the Act on Employment Promotion etc. of Persons with Disabilities (障害者の雇用の促進等に関する法律), reasonable accommodation under Article 36-3 of that Act also becomes a matter for consideration. That Article requires necessary measures to be taken, while adding a proviso: "this shall not apply where it would impose an excessive burden on the employer." Whether the employee falls within it, and which measures are necessary, should be confirmed case by case.

On managing overtime after a return, see our article on Article 36 agreements.

How should trial attendance and shorter working hours be approached?

The guide lists three things that may be done before a formal return: simulated attendance, commuting practice, and trial attendance. It then says:

Regarding treatment during this period, the response in the event of an accident, and the positioning in personnel and labor management, these must be examined sufficiently between labor and management in advance, and a set of rules must be established.

In other words, this is an arrangement premised on decisions made before it starts. Matters to settle:

• Whether it counts as attendance at work
• Whether wages are paid and, if so, on what basis
• The response if an accident occurs during the period
• Travel expenses
• Time of day, hours per day, and how long the arrangement runs
• Whether direction and orders are given, and which duties are entrusted and to what extent
• How it feeds into performance evaluation
• The criteria for stopping

Where work is performed on the employer's instructions, the application of the Labor Standards Act and the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act can come into question. That assessment turns on the actual facts, so where the point may become contested, please consult a lawyer.

Where the employee returns on shorter hours, first make the personnel and labor management positioning clear: is this a shorter-hours scheme that reduces prescribed working hours, or a workplace measure restricting hours for a defined period? On that basis, work through wages, the social insurance treatment, how long the arrangement runs, and the conditions for returning to normal hours.

Where there is no occupational physician, who does the company consult?

Even for workplaces not required to appoint an occupational physician, Article 13-2, paragraph 1 of the Industrial Safety and Health Act provides:

With respect to workplaces other than those set forth in paragraph 1 of the preceding Article, the employer shall endeavor to have a physician possessing the medical knowledge necessary to carry out workers' health management, or another person specified by Ordinance of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, carry out all or part of workers' health management.

Small workplaces with fewer than 50 workers may in some cases use the occupational health services of the Regional Occupational Health Centers (地域産業保健センター) free of charge. Health management consultations include matters relating to mental health, and visits by physicians and others are also available. That said, these centers do not deliver a blanket ruling on whether a particular employee may return to work. Please check the conditions of use, the number of sessions, and the content with the center for your area.

Other options include contracting with an external occupational physician or occupational health professional, using the prefectural Occupational Health Support Center, and requesting information from the attending physician (with the employee's consent as a precondition).

Table B: Who is responsible for what

Party	During leave	Preparing to return	After returning
Company	Leave procedures, agreeing contact arrangements, social insurance administration	Organizing information about the work, judging whether return is possible, drawing up the plan	Implementing workplace measures, interviews, revising the plan
Employee	Recuperation, submitting certificates, reporting on their situation	Applying to return, consulting the attending physician, consenting to information sharing	Reporting on their condition, attending interviews
Physician	Diagnosis, instructions on treatment	Medical opinion on returning to work	Continuing treatment, opinions as needed
Certified social insurance and labor consultant	Checking provisions, social insurance procedures, organizing the administration	Preparing procedures and forms, organizing labor-management practice	Organizing working conditions, revising provisions

Medical judgments are made by physicians. Legal judgments once a matter becomes contested are made by lawyers. The certified social insurance and labor consultant handles the work rules, the procedures, and labor-management practice.

What to check as the end of the leave period approaches

First, check — in the wording of your work rules — the length of the leave period, provisions on extension, the requirements for returning, and the treatment on expiry. Then organize the following:

• The most recent medical certificate
• The state of the employee's work performance capacity
• The scope of duties under the labor contract, and the possibility of placement
• Whether workplace measures can cover the gap
• How you have handled comparable cases in the past
• The remaining payment period for the injury and sickness allowance (in relation to the aggregate one year and six months)

In practical terms, work backwards from the expiry date to set when you will notify the employee, the deadline for submitting a certificate, and the interview schedule. Keep records of what you notified, the interviews, and every document received.

Whether expiry of the leave period means resignation or dismissal as a matter of course varies with the content of your provisions, how you have applied them, and the individual circumstances. This article does not settle that question. On where to turn when resignation, dismissal, or a refusal to approve a return becomes an issue, see our article on who to consult about dismissal.

So what should the company actually do?

In order, there are seven things.

1. Check the work rules and leave-of-absence provisions
2. Check the medical certificate and complete the procedures to start the leave
3. Organize the treatment of wages, social insurance premiums, and the injury and sickness allowance
4. Decide how contact will be maintained during leave and how health information will be handled
5. Receive the application to return and the certificate
6. Confirm work performance capacity and draw up the return-to-work support plan
7. Follow up for a period after the return

Do not skip the seventh. The guide places Step 5 there because the point of return is not the end.

What can 四葉社会保険労務士事務所 (Yotsuba Certified Social Insurance and Labor Consultant Office) do?

What we take on is the "scheme and procedure" side of leave and return to work.

• Preparing work rules and leave-of-absence provisions, and setting rules for the return-to-work procedure
• Building the internal workflow and forms from the start of leave through the return
• Organizing the treatment of wages and social insurance
• Social insurance procedures, including the injury and sickness allowance. The Health Insurance Act is among the labor and social insurance laws listed in Appended Table 1 of the Certified Social Insurance and Labor Consultant Act (社会保険労務士法), under Article 2, paragraph 1, item 1 and item 1-2 of that Act
• Organizing labor-management practice for the return (interview records, designing workplace measures, revising provisions)

We do not handle the following.

• Medical judgments, the medical question of fitness to return, and guidance interviews → physicians
• Assessing the lawfulness of a dismissal or a refusal to approve a return in a particular case, and negotiation or litigation once a matter becomes contested → lawyers
• Tax consultations → tax accountants

四葉不動産株式会社, 四葉行政書士事務所, and 四葉社会保険労務士事務所 each accept work as separate, independent business entities. Where we introduce another professional, we do so on the basis that you contract with them directly, and we receive no referral fee.

Consultations are free of charge. Please also see our services and how we work.

Frequently asked questions

Q. If a medical certificate for mental health problems is submitted, must the company place the employee on leave?
A. A leave-of-absence scheme is not something the Labor Standards Act requires of every company; it depends on your work rules and similar provisions. Review the certificate's contents and, at the same time, confirm in your provisions whether the diagnosis falls within your grounds for leave. The certificate is evidence for the decision; this is not a scheme in which leave begins automatically on the day it is submitted. At a company with no leave provisions, the question becomes how to treat the absence.

Q. What happens to wages and social insurance premiums during leave?
A. The treatment of wages is determined by checking your work rules, wage regulations, and the labor contract. The law does not uniformly decide "unpaid" or "paid." As for social insurance, where the employment relationship and insured status continue, taking leave for a non-work-related illness does not by itself mean insured status is lost as a matter of course, and in principle the premium obligation continues. This is separate from the premium exemption scheme for maternity and childcare leave. How the employee's share will be received should be settled before the leave begins, after checking the law and your own provisions and explaining the matter to the employee.

Q. If the attending physician certifies "fit to return," must the company allow the return?
A. The Ministry's guide states that a physician's diagnosis is "not necessarily a judgment that the worker has recovered to the level of work performance capacity required in the workplace." The company treats the certificate as an important document and then checks the duties, working hours, commuting, the possibility of placement, and the workplace's readiness. At the same time, deciding against a return merely because the current post cannot be performed exactly as before often means the checking is incomplete. Medical judgments are made by physicians; where the line on refusing a return is at issue, please consult a lawyer.

Q. When the leave period expires, does the employee automatically resign?
A. This varies with the content of your provisions, how you have applied them, and the individual circumstances, so it cannot be said uniformly that resignation or dismissal follows as a matter of course. Before expiry, organize the most recent certificate, work performance capacity, the possibility of placement, and the scope covered by workplace measures, and keep records of the notice given and the interviews held. Where resignation or dismissal is at issue, please consult a lawyer.

Sources for this article

• Labor Standards Act (労働基準法, Act No. 49 of 1947), Article 89 item 3 (matters concerning retirement, including grounds for dismissal) and item 10 (matters stated where such provisions are made)
• Health Insurance Act (健康保険法, Act No. 70 of 1922), Article 99 paragraph 1 (three-day waiting period; voluntarily continuing insured persons excluded), paragraph 2 (amount, and the proviso for fewer than 12 months), paragraph 4 (one year and six months in aggregate); Article 108 paragraph 1 (adjustment against remuneration; payment of the difference)
• Act Partially Amending the Health Insurance Act and Other Acts to Build a Social Security System Responsive to All Generations (全世代対応型の社会保障制度を構築するための健康保険法等の一部を改正する法律, Act No. 66 of 2021) — aggregation of the payment period for the injury and sickness allowance; in force from 1 January 2022
• Industrial Safety and Health Act (労働安全衛生法, Act No. 57 of 1972), Article 13-2 paragraph 1 (best-effort obligation for workplaces not required to appoint an occupational physician); Article 104 paragraphs 1 to 3 (handling of information on physical and mental condition)
• Act on the Protection of Personal Information (個人情報の保護に関する法律, Act No. 57 of 2003), Article 2 paragraph 3 (special care-required personal information, including medical history)
• Act on Employment Promotion etc. of Persons with Disabilities (障害者の雇用の促進等に関する法律, Act No. 123 of 1960), Article 36-3 (necessary measures and the excessive-burden proviso)
• Certified Social Insurance and Labor Consultant Act (社会保険労務士法, Act No. 89 of 1968), Article 2 paragraph 1 items 1, 1-2 and 3. The Health Insurance Act is among the labor and social insurance laws listed in Appended Table 1 of that Act
• Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, "Guide to Supporting the Return to Work of Workers Who Have Taken Leave Due to Mental Health Problems" (心の健康問題により休業した労働者の職場復帰支援の手引き; prepared October 2004, revised July 2012) — the five steps, the items of the return-to-work support plan, the three forms of trial attendance, and the passage on the attending physician's judgment
• Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Guideline on Measures to Be Taken by Employers for the Proper Handling of Information on Workers' Physical and Mental Condition (Public Notice No. 1 of 7 September 2018; amended by Public Notice No. 2 of 31 March 2022)
• Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Guideline for Maintaining and Improving Workers' Mental Health (Public Notice No. 3 of 31 March 2006; amended by Public Notice No. 6 of 30 November 2015)
• Japan Health Insurance Association, "When you take time off work due to illness or injury (injury and sickness allowance)" and the application form — the four conditions, the inclusion of paid leave and scheduled days off in the waiting period, and the requirements for continued benefits after loss of insured status
• Japan Pension Service, "Exemption from premiums (maternity and childcare leave)" — what is listed as exempt is maternity leave before and after childbirth and childcare leave
• Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, "Kokoro no Mimi" — Regional Occupational Health Centers, for workplaces with fewer than 50 workers, free of charge
• Public materials and statutory texts confirmed on August 19, 2026

This article does not decide whom to consult. 四葉社会保険労務士事務所 can advise on preparing work rules and leave-of-absence provisions, the internal workflow and forms from the start of leave through the return, organizing the treatment of wages and social insurance, social insurance procedures including the injury and sickness allowance, and organizing labor-management practice for the return. The medical question of fitness to return and guidance interviews are the domain of a physician; assessing the lawfulness of a dismissal or a refusal to approve a return in a particular case, and negotiation or litigation once a matter becomes contested, are the domain of a lawyer (Bengoshi); tax matters are the domain of a tax accountant. If a different professional is needed, each is contracted separately, and there is no referral fee. Fees are set out in the fee schedule, and frequently asked questions are collected in the FAQ.

This article is general information. Individual determinations are made by a qualified professional after a consultation, in light of individual circumstances. Written by Joji Uramatsu (Shakai Hoken Roumushi, Gyoseishoshi, Registered Real Estate Transaction Specialist).