When the annual calendar arrives from your child’s hoikuen (daycare centre) or yochien (kindergarten) with dates for sports day and the entrance ceremony, it is natural to wonder whether child nursing and care leave can be used. The April 2025 revision widened the situations the leave covers, but it still does not apply to every daycare or school event.
The short answer
Sports day is not covered by statutory child nursing and care leave. Entrance and graduation ceremonies at daycare centres and kindergartens, elementary school entrance ceremonies, and taking your child for a health check-up or vaccination are all covered.
Being outside the statutory list does not mean there is no way to take the day off. Your employer may offer leave for childcare purposes, leave for balancing work and childcare, or ordinary paid annual leave that can be used instead.
This article sets out which events fall inside and outside the statutory scope, how to choose between the available leave types, what to look for in your employer’s work rules, and how to raise it with HR and your manager.
Table of Contents
Sports day is not covered by child nursing and care leave
Sports day and classroom observation days are not included in the statutory grounds for child nursing and care leave. Your employer may still have its own leave scheme that covers them.
Child nursing and care leave (子の看護等休暇, ko no kango-tō kyūka) is available to employees raising a child up to the end of third grade of elementary school, roughly age nine. It can be taken to care for a sick or injured child, to take your child for vaccinations or health check-ups, to respond to class closures caused by infectious disease, and to attend the ceremonies covered by the law.
Employees with one eligible child can take up to five days per leave year, and employees with two or more eligible children up to ten days. Unless the employer sets a different period, the leave year runs from 1 April to 31 March. As a rule, the leave can be taken in units of one working day or one hour.
The revision that took effect on 1 April 2025 extended the eligible age range from pre-school children to children through the end of third grade. It also added two new grounds: responding to class closures due to infectious disease, and attending a child’s entrance or graduation ceremony at a daycare centre or kindergarten, or a child’s elementary school entrance ceremony.
(Source: Child Nursing and Care Leave | Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in Japanese)
The Ministry’s Q&A on the revised law states plainly that attending a classroom observation day or a sports day is not among the statutory grounds. Employers are, however, free to go beyond the legal minimum and add these events to their own scheme.
(Source: Q&A on the 2024 Revised Child Care and Family Care Leave Act | Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in Japanese)
Entrance and graduation ceremonies are covered
Since April 2025, child nursing and care leave can be taken to attend a child’s entrance or graduation ceremony at a daycare centre or kindergarten, or a child’s entrance ceremony at elementary school.
This covers the entrance and graduation ceremonies held by hoikuen and yochien, and the entrance ceremony at elementary school. Because eligibility stops at the end of third grade, a standard elementary school graduation ceremony falls outside the age range.
Year-advancement ceremonies, ceremonies held when a child transfers to a different facility, and recital-style events are best not judged by their name alone. Check with your HR or labour affairs contact whether the event counts as one of the ceremonies named in the law, or whether your employer has widened the scope on its own.
Entrance ceremonies are one of the events you can see coming well in advance. Even before you have decided which leave scheme to use, sharing the date with your manager as soon as you know it makes the later scheduling easier.
Why sports day and observation days are excluded
Child nursing and care leave is not a general-purpose allowance for anything related to raising a child. The permitted uses are set out in law, and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has explained that sports day and classroom observation days are not among them.
The Japanese name of the scheme changed from 子の看護休暇 to 子の看護等休暇, adding the character 等, which suggests the leave covers additional purposes. It is understandable that parents read that as covering sports day and observation days. A change in name, however, is not the same as every daycare and school event becoming eligible.
Editor’s note
The character 等 was added to the name of the scheme, yet the list of qualifying events remains narrow. That gap between what the name suggests and what the scheme actually covers seems to be where much of the confusion, at home and at work, comes from.
As moments where you see how much your child has grown, a sports day or a recital matters just as much as an entrance ceremony. “Outside the statutory scope” is not a judgement on the value of the event. Rather than giving up because the law does not cover it, treat checking whether your employer offers another route as part of the same decision.
The law sets a floor. Keep “not covered by statutory child nursing and care leave” separate from “there is no leave I can use at my company.”
Health check-ups and vaccinations are covered
Taking your child for a health check-up or vaccination is covered by child nursing and care leave. Your own health check-up is not.
The word “check-up” on its own can make the boundary hard to see. The basic test is whether the purpose of the leave is to have an eligible child receive a health check-up or vaccination.
The scheme is not limited to appointments after an illness has been identified. Health check-ups intended to confirm how your child is doing, and vaccinations intended to prevent illness, are both described as qualifying uses.
(Source: Child Nursing and Care Leave | Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in Japanese)
How to judge which check-ups qualify
Child nursing and care leave can be used when you need to take time off work so that an eligible child can receive a health check-up.
This covers situations such as the infant and toddler health check-ups run by your local municipality, or accompanying your child to a check-up at a clinic or hospital. Taking your child to a medical facility for a routine vaccination also qualifies.
Your own annual health check-up or a full medical screening does not qualify, because the purpose is not to have your child examined. For your own appointments, look instead at paid annual leave or any medical appointment leave your employer provides.
Depending on the appointment time, a check-up or vaccination may not require a full day off. Once you have allowed for travel and waiting time, taking the leave in hourly units can let you take only the hours you actually need.
Check-ups at the facility, municipal check-ups, and accompanying your child
Municipal infant and toddler health check-ups, and vaccinations at a medical facility, are straightforward cases: you need to take your child there yourself, which is exactly what the scheme is for.
Check-ups held at the daycare centre or kindergarten depend on how they are run. If the check-up takes place during normal hours at the facility and parents are not required to attend, there is no need to take time off at all.
If the facility asks you to accompany your child, or if the results mean your child needs to be seen at a clinic, child nursing and care leave is worth considering. Rather than judging by the name of the event or where it is held, explain to your employer that your child’s examination or care requires you to be there.
Some employers ask to see a notice or appointment slip. That said, the Ministry’s guidance on the scheme indicates that where documentation is requested, employers should allow it to be submitted after the fact and should avoid placing an excessive burden on the employee.
(Source: The Child Nursing and Care Leave System | Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in Japanese)
Event-by-event eligibility at a glance
Among daycare and school events, some fall under the statutory scheme and others have to be handled through company schemes. It helps to separate them by purpose.
Events and purposes covered by law
The main qualifying grounds described by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as of publication are as follows.
| Event or purpose | Statutory child nursing and care leave | Points to note | What to confirm with your employer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entrance ceremony at a daycare centre or kindergarten | Covered | Added April 2025 | Whether the leave is paid or unpaid, application deadline |
| Graduation ceremony at a daycare centre or kindergarten | Covered | Added April 2025 | Whether the leave is paid or unpaid, application deadline |
| Elementary school entrance ceremony | Covered | Added April 2025 | Whether the leave is paid or unpaid, application deadline |
| Child’s health check-up | Covered | When the child is the one being examined | Whether hourly units are available |
| Child’s vaccination | Covered | When the child is the one being vaccinated | Whether hourly units are available |
| Caring for a sick or injured child | Covered | No blanket restriction on the type or severity of illness or injury | How to notify in an emergency |
| Class closure due to infectious disease | Covered | Applies even if your own child is not infected | How closure notices are verified |
Child nursing and care leave is separate from your paid annual leave. The allowance is five days a year for one eligible child and ten days for two or more, but note that this is a per-employee ceiling, not five days per child.
Events outside the statutory scope worth raising with your employer
For the events below, look at schemes other than statutory child nursing and care leave. Sports day and classroom observation days are explicitly identified as outside the statutory scope in the Ministry’s Q&A.
| Event or purpose | Statutory child nursing and care leave | Alternatives to check |
|---|---|---|
| Sports day (undōkai) | Not covered | Childcare purpose leave, childcare balance support leave, paid annual leave |
| Classroom or daycare observation day | Not covered | Childcare purpose leave, company leave schemes, paid annual leave |
| Accompanying your child on a field trip | Check other schemes as a rule | Childcare purpose leave, company leave schemes, paid annual leave |
| Recitals and performance days | Check other schemes as a rule | Company leave schemes, paid annual leave |
| Parents’ meetings and parent-teacher meetings | Check other schemes as a rule | Hourly paid leave, flexitime, company leave schemes |
| Sports day rehearsal | Check other schemes as a rule | Paid annual leave, adjusted working hours |
| Rain date, the backup date used if the event is postponed because of rain | Follows the event it replaces | Also check how to change or cancel a booked leave day |
Recitals, year-advancement ceremonies and similar events are named and positioned differently from one facility to the next. Rather than deciding for yourself that an event qualifies because it is called a ceremony, check separately whether it is one of the ceremonies covered by the law and whether your employer’s own scheme recognises it.
Four schemes to check when taking sports day off
For sports day, paid annual leave is not the only option. Childcare purpose leave and childcare balance support leave may also be available. Start with your employer’s work rules.
There are four main candidates to look at.
| Scheme | Status | Use for sports day | Paid or unpaid | Main points to check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child nursing and care leave | Statutory leave | Outside the statutory scope | Depends on company rules | Whether your employer has widened the scope |
| Childcare purpose leave, for childcare-related needs | Employers have a duty to make efforts to introduce it | May be available | Depends on company rules | Whether it exists, permitted uses, number of days |
| Childcare balance support leave, for balancing work and childcare | One of the measures an employer may choose to provide | Worth considering if your employer has introduced it | Depends on company rules | Eligible age range, whether it has been introduced |
| Paid annual leave | Leave under the Labour Standards Act | Available | Paid | Remaining days, application deadline, units available |
Even among schemes described as leave for raising children, the eligible age, whether the employer must provide it, the permitted uses and the number of days all differ. Rather than going by the name of the scheme, check what your employer’s work rules (就業規則, shūgyō kisoku) actually say.
Childcare purpose leave
Childcare purpose leave (育児目的休暇, ikuji mokuteki kyūka) is a leave scheme that can be used for childcare-related purposes such as a partner giving birth or attending a child’s school event.
Employers have a duty to make efforts to provide this kind of leave for employees raising pre-school children. That said, not every company has a scheme with the same name or the same terms.
Even where a scheme exists, the events it covers, the number of days, the units in which it can be taken, and whether it is paid or unpaid all vary. The Ministry’s Q&A gives examples of childcare purpose leave being used for a daycare field trip, accompanying a child on sports day, and attending an observation day.
(Source: Q&A on the 2024 Revised Child Care and Family Care Leave Act | Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in Japanese)
Your work rules and company intranet will be in Japanese, so search them using these terms.
- 子の看護 (child nursing)
- 育児目的 (childcare purpose)
- 養育両立支援 (childcare balance support)
- 特別休暇 (special leave)
- 学校行事 (school events)
- 柔軟な働き方 (flexible working)
Some companies use their own names instead, such as family support leave, childcare leave days, or family leave.
Childcare balance support leave
Childcare balance support leave (養育両立支援休暇) is intended to help employees raising a child from age three until the child starts elementary school combine work and childcare.
From October 2025, employers must provide at least two of the following five measures to eligible employees.
- Changes to start and finish times
- Telework and similar arrangements
- Setting up and running childcare facilities
- Providing childcare balance support leave
- Shorter working hours
Employers do not have to adopt all five. That means childcare balance support leave is not available at every workplace.
Where an employer has chosen this measure, it must provide at least ten days a year and, as a rule, allow the leave to be taken in hourly units. The purpose is largely left to the employee, as long as it relates to raising a child while continuing to work, so attending sports day is a reasonable use to consider.
(Source: Measures for Flexible Working Arrangements | Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in Japanese)
The eligible age range runs from age three until the child starts elementary school. For a sports day at elementary school, look instead at paid annual leave or any school event leave your employer provides.
Paid annual leave and adjusting your hours
Sports day is a legitimate reason to take paid annual leave. As a rule, you are not required to justify how you use it.
Paid annual leave is taken at the time the employee chooses, although an employer may ask you to move it if it would interfere with the normal operation of the business. Since the event date cannot be moved, applying as soon as you know the date is the practical approach.
(Source: What is the paid annual leave system? | Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in Japanese)
If you do not need the whole day, check whether these options are available.
- Half-day paid annual leave
- Hourly paid annual leave
- Flexitime
- Staggered start times
- Stepping out mid-shift
- Working from home
- Swapping shifts
Sports day also needs a plan for rain. When you apply, ask how to move your leave to the rain date and whether you can cancel it if the event is called off, so you are not scrambling on the day.
How should I raise this with HR and my manager?
Rather than naming a scheme up front, give the date and purpose of the event and ask about available leave, whether it is paid, and the application process together.
Ask HR which schemes you can use, and talk to your direct manager about when you will be away and how the work will be covered. Keeping those two conversations separate stops policy questions and workload questions from getting tangled.
Check before you apply
- Your child’s age and school year
- Event name, date and hours
- The rain date, if one has been set
- Whether you need an hour, part of a day or a full day off
- Internal schemes available to you
- Remaining leave days
- Whether the leave is paid or unpaid
- Application deadline and required documents
- Handover of your work
- A record of HR’s answer
Sample message to HR
When asking about sports day, the key is not to narrow the question to one scheme, but to ask what leave is available overall.
Asking which schemes cover sports day
My child’s sports day is scheduled for [date].
I understand that sports day falls outside the statutory child nursing and care leave. Could you let me know whether there are internal schemes I could use instead, such as childcare purpose leave or childcare balance support leave?
It would also help to know whether the leave is paid or unpaid, the units it can be taken in, the application deadline, and the procedure if the event moves to the rain date. Thank you for your help.
If you ask about one named scheme, the conversation can end with “that scheme doesn’t cover it.” Asking which leave schemes are available makes it easier for HR to point you to a company scheme or a different working arrangement.
Applying for an entrance ceremony or a child’s check-up
I would like to take child nursing and care leave on [date] to attend my child’s entrance ceremony. Could you tell me the internal application process, the units available, whether the leave is paid or unpaid, and any documents required?
Whether child nursing and care leave is paid or unpaid is not fixed by law; it depends on your employer’s rules. It is separate from your paid annual leave allowance, so if you want to avoid an impact on your pay, confirm this before applying.
Sample message to your manager
With your manager, focus less on explaining the scheme and more on the date and the work.
Raising the leave and workload together
My child has sports day on [date], so I would like to take the day off. I am currently checking with HR which leave scheme applies.
I will finish [task] by the day before, and hand [task] over to [colleague]. If it rains, the event moves to [date], and I will share the details of any change as soon as I know.
If there is any problem with the scheduling, I would appreciate hearing from you early.
When the annual calendar first arrives, you can also share the dates alone, like this.
Sharing the annual event calendar in advance
My child’s daycare centre has sent out the annual event calendar, so I am sharing the dates I expect to attend. I will come back to you about the leave I will use and the scheduling as each date approaches.
There is no need to over-explain out of a sense of guilt about taking leave. Calmly sharing the date, the procedure and how the work will be handled is enough.
Raising it early and handing work over is not compensation for being away. It is the ordinary coordination that combining a family and a job requires.
What if my employer’s explanation is unclear?
Start with your work rules and HR’s answer. If an application that qualifies under the law is refused, you can consult your Prefectural Labour Bureau.
Because sports day is outside the statutory scope, you may not be able to take it as child nursing and care leave if your employer has no scheme of its own. Cases that do qualify under the law, such as entrance and graduation ceremonies at daycare centres and kindergartens, elementary school entrance ceremonies and children’s health check-ups, need to be treated separately.
Separate the statutory scheme from company schemes
If HR or your manager says the leave cannot be used for that event, check which scheme the answer refers to.
- Is it outside the scope of statutory child nursing and care leave?
- Is company childcare purpose leave also unavailable?
- Has childcare balance support leave been introduced?
- Could paid annual leave or adjusted hours work instead?
For example, being told that sports day is not covered by child nursing and care leave is consistent with the current statutory scope. That answer alone does not mean the company has nothing you can use for a child’s event.
Conversely, if you are told that leave is not available for an entrance ceremony or your child’s vaccination because it is not written into the work rules, it is worth going back to HR or labour affairs to ask whether the revised rules have been reflected in the internal regulations.
The April 2025 revision also removed the arrangement that allowed employees with less than six months of continuous service to be excluded by a labour-management agreement. For employees who are not full-time permanent staff, eligibility should be checked case by case rather than assumed from employment type.
Employees hired on a daily basis are excluded, however. Where a labour-management agreement is in place, employees whose scheduled working days total two or fewer per week may also be excluded.
(Source: Explanation of the 2024 Revisions to the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act | Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in Japanese)
Keep records and use the consultation service
If you have doubts about your employer’s explanation, avoid leaving the exchange entirely verbal and keep a note of the following.
- The date you applied
- The type of leave you applied for
- Your child’s age
- The purpose and the dates and times you requested
- The answer you received
- The provisions of the work rules you checked
- Emails or screenshots of the application system
Dismissal, demotion and disadvantageous transfers on the grounds of applying for or taking child nursing and care leave are prohibited. Employers also may not treat pay or bonuses unfavourably beyond the days or hours actually not worked.
(Source: Prohibition of Disadvantageous Treatment Based on Taking Childcare Leave | Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in Japanese)
If the matter cannot be resolved internally, you can consult the Employment Environment and Equal Employment Department or Division of the Prefectural Labour Bureau for the area where your workplace is located. They can provide information on what the law requires and, depending on the situation, explain dispute resolution assistance.
(Source: Consultation Services on the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act | Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in Japanese)
Frequently asked questions about child nursing and care leave
Short answers to the points parents most often get stuck on: which events qualify, whether the leave is paid, the units available, and employment type.
- Is sports day covered by child nursing and care leave?
- It is not among the statutory grounds. Your employer may have added sports day to its own scheme, or you may be able to use childcare purpose leave or something similar.
- Are daycare and kindergarten ceremonies and elementary school entrance ceremonies covered?
- Yes. Attending a child’s entrance or graduation ceremony at a daycare centre or kindergarten, or a child’s elementary school entrance ceremony, was added to the qualifying grounds on 1 April 2025. An elementary school graduation ceremony falls outside the eligible age range.
- Are children’s health check-ups and vaccinations covered?
- Yes. The leave can be taken so that an eligible child can receive a health check-up or vaccination. Your own check-up is not covered.
- Is child nursing and care leave paid?
- Whether it is paid or unpaid depends on your employer’s rules. It is a statutory leave separate from paid annual leave, but the law does not impose a blanket requirement to pay wages during it.
- Can I take it in hourly units?
- As a rule, yes, in units of one hour or one working day. A labour-management agreement may exclude employees in roles where hourly leave is difficult to accommodate. Even then, leave in units of one working day remains available if the requirements are met.
- Are part-time and contract employees eligible?
- Employment type alone does not make you ineligible. Employees hired on a daily basis are excluded, and where a labour-management agreement is in place, employees whose scheduled working days total two or fewer per week may also be excluded.
- Can a company choose to cover sports day?
- Yes. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has explained that there is no problem with an employer adding sports day or classroom observation days as qualifying grounds, as a measure exceeding the statutory minimum.
- Where can I turn if I am told there is no scheme?
- First, ask HR or labour affairs whether the answer refers to statutory child nursing and care leave or to a company childcare leave scheme. If an application that qualifies under the law is refused, or the explanation leaves you with doubts, you can consult the Employment Environment and Equal Employment Department or Division of your Prefectural Labour Bureau.
A three-minute check once you have the event date
- Check whether the event falls under statutory child nursing and care leave
- Search your work rules or intranet using the six Japanese keywords above
- Ask HR which leave schemes are available to you
Whether sports day falls under statutory child nursing and care leave, and how much being there matters to you and your child, are two separate questions. There is no need to read “outside the scope of the scheme” as “not reason enough to take a day off work.”
The current rules draw a clear line, but once company leave schemes and adjusted working hours are included, there are often options to be found. When the annual calendar arrives from your child’s facility, start by writing down the event dates and rain dates, then look at your work rules.
A supportive workplace makes it easier to discuss family commitments in advance. Parents should not have to feel guilty or handle every adjustment alone. Leave schemes and working arrangements need to account for the fact that family life does not always go to plan.
Note: this article provides general information based on the laws and Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare materials in force at the time of publication. Actual eligibility, whether the leave is paid, and application procedures vary according to your employer’s work rules and labour-management agreements. For individual cases, consult your employer’s HR or labour affairs contact, or your Prefectural Labour Bureau.
