From April 1, 2019 (the date of enforcement), a new examination request fee, patent fee (for 1 to 10 years), and a reduction and exemption system for fees related to international applications will begin.
The outline of the new exemption system is as follows.

■ Expansion of people eligible for tax reduction
Small and medium-sized enterprises (for example, less than 300 employees or less than 300 million yen in the case of manufacturing) will be eligible for reduction. However, for small enterprises (20 employees or less) who are covered under the current system, the examination request fee etc. will be reduced to 1/3, but SMEs newly added to the target under the new system For this, the examination request fee etc. will be reduced to 1/2．

■ Significant simplification of reduction and exemption application procedure
Currently, upon application for reduction of taxes, applicants are required to submit an application for reduction of taxes and a certificate (a document certifying that they meet the requirements for reduction of taxes) together with an application examination request and a patent fee payment notice. In addition, about reduction fee application of patent fee, procedure of reduction application thereafter can be omitted by making reduction application once.
Under the new system, it is not necessary to submit reduction application and certificate. Specifically, in the “Special Instructions on Fees for Application Examination Request”, or on the “Special Provisions on Patent Fees,” on “Policies for Payment of Patent Fees”, “Subject to reduction” and “Submission of reduction application” It is sufficient to describe "Omit to omit".

In addition, if you make a request for examination before the date of enforcement, reduction and exemption of examination request fees etc. will be applied based on the current system. Therefore, it is necessary to submit a reduction application and certificate (in the case of patent fee payment, only at the first reduction application) to receive reduction or exemption.

In this way, with the new reduction and exemption system, it becomes easier to receive reduction and exemption applications, so we would like to recommend that it be used positively if applicable.
Specifically, it is published on the Patent Office website.

Japan Patent Office
https://www.jpo.go.jp/system/process/tesuryo/genmen/genmensochi/genmen20190401.htm

Supplement:

From the patent application on April 1, 2019, the application examination fee is raised as follows in the case of a normal patent application.

New fee: 138,000 yen + number of claims × 4,000 yen
Old fee: 118,000 yen + number of claims × 4,000 yen

Japan Patent Office
https://www.jpo.go.jp/tetuzuki/ryoukin/2019_ryoukinkaisei.htm

Patent Attorney
Kenji Kawakita