124 Previously Denied Disability Pension Claims Approved, Japan’s Health Ministry to Continue Review and Publish Monthly Updates

From NHK

September 19 2025

TOKYO – In response to the higher rate of disability pension denials last fiscal year compared to the year before, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare conducted a detailed review of over 2,800 claims that had been denied between April and July last year. As a result, 124 of these cases were re-evaluated and will now be approved for payment. The ministry has announced it will continue to investigate recognition decisions and publish monthly updates on the progress.

Disability pensions are provided to people enrolled in the public pension system who become disabled due to illness or injury, with eligibility determined by the Japan Pension Service. After external criticism that the proportion of denied claims had been increasing, the ministry randomly sampled last fiscal year’s decisions and found that the denial rate was 13%—4.6 percentage points higher than the previous year. It has been checking whether the screening process was appropriate and reported its findings to a subcommittee of the Social Security Council on the 19th.

According to the report, 18,982 claims were denied last fiscal year, representing 13% of all cases—again, 4.6 points higher than the year before. Of these, 2,895 denials in the four months from April to July involved mental health disability claims. After re-examining them with greater emphasis on factors such as prospects for recovery and impact on daily life, the ministry revised 124 cases (4.3%) to approved status.

The ministry stated: “We did not confirm that the initial decisions deviated from the established criteria, but in the end, they were not appropriate.”

The ministry plans to complete its review of last fiscal year’s cases within this year, and then proceed to review this fiscal year’s cases as well, continuing to publish monthly updates on its progress.