①In order to promote the filing of applications for specified-industry retirement allowance mutual aid contracts by small and medium-sized enterprises that carry on businesses belonging to a specified industry and otherwise to ensure the smooth implementation of the retirement allowance mutual aid business for small and medium-sized enterprises under the provisions of this Chapter, the Organization may, as provided by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, exempt mutual aid policyholders from paying premiums for a certain number of days, as a measure to reduce their burden of premiums.

②When converting into a number of months under Article 43, paragraph (1), or calculating the amount to be transferred under Article 46, paragraph (1) or Article 55, paragraph (4), with regard to a covered employee for whom there is a day on which a measure of exemption from the payment of premiums was taken under the provisions of the preceding paragraph, premiums are deemed to have been paid for that day.

①The Organization must transfer, as provided for by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, from the account for specified industry A established under Article 74, paragraph (1) to the account for specified industry B established under that paragraph, an amount equivalent to, in the case listed in item (i), the retirement allowance to be paid to the covered employee prescribed in that item, and, in the case listed in item (ii), the retirement allowance that would be payable to a covered employee under a specified-industry retirement allowance mutual aid contract for specified industry A if that person were deemed to have fallen under Article 43, paragraph (1), item (ii), (c) at the time of becoming a covered employee under a specified-industry retirement allowance mutual aid contract for specified industry B (or, where the total amount of premiums paid exceeds that amount (excluding the case where the retirement allowance is to be paid in a reduced amount under the provisions of Article 10, paragraph (5) as applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Article 51) or where the proviso to Article 43, paragraph (1) applies, the total amount of premiums paid):

②When the transfer under the preceding paragraph has been made, premiums are deemed to have been paid for that person under the specified-industry retirement allowance mutual aid contract for specified industry B referred to in that paragraph. In this case, with regard to the payment of a retirement allowance made after the transfer under the preceding paragraph has been made for a person for whom the number of months obtained by adding that person's specified-industry number of months of paid premiums for specified industry B to that person's specified-industry number of months of paid premiums for specified industry A is 24 months or more (or 12 months or more, where that person falls under Article 43, paragraph (1), item (i) or item (ii), (a), or is a covered employee under a specified-industry retirement allowance mutual aid contract for a specified industry designated by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare) and for a person who has the remainder obtained by deducting, from the amount transferred, the amount specified by Cabinet Order as the amount corresponding to the number of months so added, the proviso to paragraph (1) of that Article does not apply.

③The method of calculating the specified-industry number of months of paid premiums for premiums deemed to have been paid under the provisions of the preceding paragraph, and other matters necessary for the payment of retirement allowances, are specified by Cabinet Order.

Matters necessary for the handling of business are specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, where a principal contractor of a business carried out through successive tiers of contracting handles, upon entrustment by a subcontractor, the conclusion of a specified-industry retirement allowance mutual aid contract and other business that the subcontractor is to carry out in relation to the specified-industry retirement allowance mutual aid contract.

①When requested by a mutual aid policyholder, the Organization must deliver a retirement allowance mutual aid book without delay.

②When an employee whom a mutual aid policyholder currently employs has become a covered employee, or when an employee has become a covered employee through being newly employed, the mutual aid policyholder must deliver a retirement allowance mutual aid book to that covered employee without delay; provided, however, that this does not apply to a person who currently holds a retirement allowance mutual aid book.

①When newly employing an employee, a mutual aid policyholder must notify that person whether that person is to become a covered employee.

②When an employer ceases to be a mutual aid policyholder, it must without delay make that fact known to the persons who have ceased to be covered employees by a method such as posting a notice in a conspicuous place at each workplace. The same applies when all or some of the employees who are covered employees whom the employer currently employs have ceased to be covered employees under Article 41, paragraph (3) or (6).

When a mutual aid policyholder has become an employer that is not a small and medium-sized enterprise engaged in a business belonging to the specified industry concerned, it must notify the Organization to that effect without delay.

The provisions of Article 5, Article 7, paragraph (1), Article 8, paragraph (4), Article 10, paragraph (5), Article 11, Article 14, Article 15, Article 17-2, Articles 19 through 21, Article 33, Article 34, Article 35, paragraph (3), Article 36 and Article 38 apply mutatis mutandis to specified-industry retirement allowance mutual aid contracts. In this case, the phrase "Article 10, paragraph (1)" in Article 14, paragraph (1) is deemed to be replaced with "Article 43, paragraph (4)".

When the Organization commences the operations listed in Article 70, paragraph (1), item (i) for a specified industry upon the designation of that specified industry, if it is necessary for the sound administration of those operations and the Organization has obtained the authorization of the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, then notwithstanding the provisions of Article 41, paragraph (2), it may provide that, among the employees employed by mutual aid policyholders for that specified industry, those in certain types of occupation, regions, etc. are not to become covered employees within a certain period; provided, however, that this period may not exceed five years from the date of commencement of the operations listed in that item for that specified industry.

When the Organization commences the operations listed in Article 70, paragraph (1), item (i) for a specified industry upon the designation of that specified industry, where a small and medium-sized enterprise engaged in a business belonging to that specified industry that participates in a retirement allowance savings scheme for employees (hereinafter referred to as a "savings scheme" in this Article) that small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in businesses belonging to that specified industry are then jointly carrying out and that the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare certifies as conforming to the standards specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare either responds to the solicitation under Article 73, paragraph (5) and is deemed under Article 73, paragraph (8) to have concluded a specified-industry retirement allowance mutual aid contract with the Organization, or concludes a specified-industry retirement allowance mutual aid contract with the Organization within one year from the date of commencement of the operations listed in that item for that specified industry, and the employee has become a covered employee, if that small and medium-sized enterprise pays to the Organization within that period an amount specified by Cabinet Order within the range of the amount accumulated in that savings scheme for that covered employee, the number of months specified by Cabinet Order in accordance with that amount is to be aggregated with the specified-industry number of months of paid premiums for that covered employee. In this case, the number of months to be aggregated may not exceed the number of months of the period during which that small and medium-sized enterprise participated in the savings scheme for that employee (or, where the number of months of that period exceeds 72 months, 72 months).