On January 31, 2024, the Japan Patent Office（JPO） announced that there will be a partial limit to the number of cases for the reduction and exemption of patent application examination fees for small and medium-sized businesses.
This will apply to applications for which examination is requested on or after April 1, 2024.

In response to the recent use of this program in a manner that is not in line with its purpose, the annual limit of exemptions will be increased to 180 cases.

This limit does not apply to small and medium-sized start-up companies, universities and research institutes, and small and medium-sized enterprises certified under the Fukushima Special Measures Law.

Japan Patent Office:
https://www.jpo.go.jp/system/process/tesuryo/genmen/genmen_240131.html