The fourth application round of the Small Business Sustainability Subsidy (Startup Type) opened on 5 November 2026 and runs to 15 December 2026, Japan Standard Time, according to the programme's jGrants listing.
What the money covers
The subsidy pays part of the cost of sales-channel development by small businesses. It also covers efficiency measures carried out alongside that work, provided both rest on a management plan the applicant wrote itself. The listing sets the support category as sales-channel development.
The stated aim is to help small businesses cope with a series of institutional changes they will face over the coming years. The listing says the goal is to raise productivity and sustain businesses that support local jobs and industry.
Who qualifies
The target group is small businesses within one year of founding, plus non-profit corporations that meet certain requirements. To qualify, a business must have received support under a "specific startup support programme". The programme must have been run by a municipality certified under the Industrial Competitiveness Enhancement Act, or by a certified partner working with such a municipality. Applicants must be in Japan: individuals resident there, or corporations with their head office there.
The cap
The ceiling is ¥2mn. Businesses covered by the invoice special provision get an extra ¥500,000, and the listing refers readers to page 8 of the application guidelines for the details.
Applying
Applications go through the jGrants electronic system. The listing names Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge on Windows, Chrome and Safari on macOS, Safari on iOS and Chrome on Android as supported, and warns that other browsers, and Edge's Internet Explorer mode, cause application errors. Attachments may be pdf, zip, png, bmp, jpg, jpeg, gif, heic, doc, docx, xls or xlsx files.
The programme secretariat takes questions on 03-6739-3890, from 9:00 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 17:00 on weekdays, excluding public holidays and the year-end and New Year break. It runs the same line for jGrants operating queries.