Can You Take Time Off Work When Your Pet Dies in Japan? Bereavement Leave, Vet Visits, and What to Say

Last updated: August 6, 2026

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The morning your pet passed away. Or a night when their condition wasn't good and you wanted to be there. Getting ready for work, have you found yourself unable to say "I need the day off"? Whether you're even allowed to take time off for a pet, and how to bring it up — here's the actual process and phrasing, in the order people usually get stuck on it.

The short answer: it's not "is this legal," it's "does my company have a policy"

It might be surprising, but bereavement leave for a human family member has no basis in Japan's Labor Standards Act (Rōdō Kijun Hō, 労働基準法) either. Bereavement/celebratory leave (kibiki/keichō kyūka, 忌引き・慶弔休暇) is a benefit each company sets voluntarily in its own work rules — whether it's paid, and who it covers, is up to the company.

So pet bereavement leave isn't a question of "is this legally allowed." It's simply whether your company happens to have a policy for it.

And companies that do have one are real. Unicharm offers 1 day, Daiichi ipet Insurance up to 3. From Nippon Hill's-Colgate in 2005 to Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim in 2026, we could confirm at least 7 companies with a policy — and the number has grown gradually over 20 years (full list further down this page). It's still a minority of employers, but taking time off when a pet dies is, for a real (if small) number of companies, formally recognized as an ordinary kind of grieving.

How to check if your company has this

Look in your work rules under "special leave" or "bereavement/celebratory leave" (kibiki/keichō kyūka, 忌引き・慶弔休暇). If it only lists human family members — spouse, parents, children — pets aren't covered. If it mentions "pet" or "companion animal," you're covered. Some companies, like Daito Kentaku, fold it into a separate category such as "care leave."

If reading through the whole policy sounds like too much, it's enough to just ask HR:

That one question covers both whether a policy exists and what to fall back on if it doesn't.

If your company has no policy: paid leave doesn't require a reason

Even without pet bereavement leave at your workplace, paid annual leave (yūkyū kyūka, 有給休暇, Article 39 of the Labor Standards Act) doesn't legally require you to state a reason. "Personal reasons" is enough. An employer asking why isn't itself illegal, but refusing to grant leave to an employee who won't explain is not a permitted practice.

In Daiichi ipet Insurance's survey (2023, of 1,000 people who had lost a dog or cat), roughly half of those who took time off didn't tell their workplace the reason. Whether to share the reason is entirely up to you.

Not just after the fact — for vet visits and end-of-life care too

A pet's death isn't the only reason you might need time off. Daito Kentaku's "care leave" covers a pet's vet visits, caregiving, and bereavement in hourly increments, and Daiichi ipet Insurance's "pet leave" (2 days/year) was used by 234 employees in fiscal 2025. SARABiO Onsen Microbiology Institute has also formalized paid leave for accompanying a pet to the vet or for caregiving.

And here too, paid leave doesn't require a reason even without a formal policy. The day your pet's condition suddenly changes, or the day you sense the end is near — you're allowed to spend a "personal reasons" day being there with them. What's worth preparing if you've decided to care for your pet at home near the end is covered here.

Ready-to-use phrasing for telling your employer

If you want to be upfront about it

The key points are mentioning how many years you'd had them, and noting that you'll hand off your work. With someone who understands, that's usually enough.

If you'd rather not go into detail

If it doesn't feel right to say more given your workplace, it's fine to leave it at that. In the same survey, half of the people who took time off didn't share the reason, and for over half of those, it was because they didn't think their workplace would understand. Whatever hesitation you're feeling, plenty of people have felt the same.

If it's before your pet has passed — a vet visit or end-of-life care

The phrasing works the same way before your pet has passed. It can be even harder to say when you want to be there for them — but if it's hard to bring up, "personal reasons" works here too.

How many days is typical

73.3% of people who actually took time off took one or two days (same survey). That's roughly the cremation plus a bit of quiet time, for most people.

If you really can't get away

Depending on your workload, sometimes you genuinely can't step away today or tomorrow. In that case, you can move the farewell instead.

• Push the cremation back a few days: with ice packs, keeping your pet's body cool at home is generally fine for 1–2 days in summer, or 2–3 in winter. That gives you the option to wait until the weekend for a calmer goodbye (see what to do the day your pet passes away).
• Use a provider offering night or early-morning service: some let you say goodbye in the evening without missing work. Just confirm the true all-in total first, including whether there's a night surcharge (see how to choose a provider).
• Split the tasks — have family handle the arrangements while you join just for the farewell itself.

If you want to start by discussing timing, a nationwide quote-comparison service is another way in — tell them the date you'd like to cremate and compare options from there. Pet Sōgi 110-Ban (ペット葬儀110番) is one such nationwide referral and scheduling service.Ask Pet Sōgi 110-Ban about scheduling

If you weren't able to take time off

In the survey, over 60% of people who lost a pet didn't take any time off at all.

Going to work as usual that day isn't something you need to look back on as "cold." People who saw their pet off while still working are, in fact, the majority. In the same survey, 68.5% said they felt their work performance had dropped. Grieving while working is genuinely hard, on its own.

Once the ashes come home, giving them a small place on the corner of your desk is one way to hold onto that.▶ Browse pet memorial altars and keepsakes on Rakuten

On the days when you're not sure where to put what you're feeling, stories from other owners who've been through this are there too.

Reference: companies with a pet bereavement leave policy

A list drawn from official company announcements, government materials, and major news coverage we could confirm.

*We also found Mars Japan (1 paid day off plus a condolence gift when a pet dies) mentioned in multiple news articles, but couldn't reach a primary source for it. Companies named only in aggregator/listicle sites, without a source we could confirm, aren't included here.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Legal status of bereavement leave: the Labor Standards Act (no provision covering bereavement leave) — see Money Forward Cloud Payroll's explainer (in Japanese) and others (confirmed August 2026)
• Paid annual leave: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Labor Standards Act Article 39, in Japanese)
• Nippon Hill's-Colgate: MHLW "Leave Systems That Energize Employees and Companies" case-study collection (in Japanese)
• Unicharm: official news release, 2017 (in Japanese)
• Daiichi ipet Insurance: official recruiting site (benefits, in Japanese), survey on pet loss and work performance, 2023 (in Japanese)
• Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim: Nikkei, July 24, 2026 (in Japanese)
• Daito Kentaku: official announcement via PR TIMES (in Japanese)
• Biophilia: official announcement via PR TIMES, 2021 (in Japanese)
• SARABiO Onsen Microbiology Institute: official press release, 2022 (in Japanese)