China

On March 25th, the State Council of China promulgated the “Implementation Opinions on Strengthening Measures of Stabilizing Employment to Cope with the Impact of  Covid-19,” which proposed to support flexible employment in multiple channels, including reasonable setting of management mode of the vendors without fixed business premises, and reserving free market, stall group, and other business outlets; supporting the flexible-employed individuals to rely on platform, and self-employed on platform who purchase the necessary tools for production and operation, can apply for entrepreneurship guaranteed loans and preferential interest rate; guiding platform enterprises to make access easier, lower the management service fees, and standardize and normalize communication and coordination mechanisms with the platform self-employed regarding salaries, working hours, and social protection. Restrictions of the rural household flexible-employed individuals are abolished in taking part in the pension insurance, and for those who have difficulty in employment, and have not been employed within two years after graduation from universities, and pay social insurance premiums since flexible employment, a certain amount of social insurance subsidies will be granted. Many provinces, including Hunan and Shandong, have launched social security subsidies for flexible employees. Flexible employees who are qualified for the requirement can receive up to 1,340 yuan per month. In the first quarter of 2020 alone, China has accumulatively spent nearly 10 billion yuan in employment subsidies, and flexible employment is one of the key priorities.

On April 10th, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a new policy of “Cultivating a New Format of the Digital Economy and Encouraging Flexible Employment”, which proposed to support internet companies and shared platform enterprises to explore various value-added application development platforms, shared employment platforms, and flexible employment security platforms.  All kinds of flexible-employed such as freelance designers, car drivers, freelance travel guides, takeout riders, online matchmakers, online fitness coaches, freelance photographers, content creators, etc. can be provided multi-level social security services, for example, vocational training, employment service, and commercial insurance.

Japan

The Japanese government provides financial subsidies for the self-employed in its 1 trillion-dollar stimulus plan, which was launched on April 8th, and the self-employed would receive a maximum of 1 million yen (about $ 9,000 ) per person. In addition, for the self-employed who must stay home to take care of their children due to school suspension, they can also receive a subsidy of 4,100 yen ($ 39) per day.

South Korea

The South Korean government expanded emergency financial assistance for small and micro businesses and the self-employed from 100 trillion won ($ 80 billion) to 135 trillion ($ 109 billion) on April 22nd. 

The government reserves an additional 10 trillion won ($ 8 billion) to provide financial subsidies of 500,000 won ($ 400) per month for those self-employed who cannot work normally due to the epidemic or have lower incomes for three consecutive months.