Five Ways into the Dormant Deposits Scheme: Where You Apply Changes Everything

The first thing that stalls a conversation about using dormant deposit funds is where to apply. The dormant deposits scheme has three tiers, and the body issuing the call differs at each one. Until an organization knows which tier it stands on, it cannot know which set of guidelines to read.

The mechanics of the scheme are covered in the dormant deposits guide（このサイトの記事）, and the application requirements in the FY2026 application guide（このサイトの記事）. This article is the map that comes before both.

JANPIA calls for the three second-tier positions. The two third-tier positions are reached through calls issued by whoever won those.

Two things in this diagram matter. One is that an organization wanting to be an implementing organization does not apply to JANPIA. The other is that no money flows along the activity support branch.

The grant figures come from Cabinet Office materials. The average planned grant per project is 154 million yen[1] for fund distribution organizations and 16.24 million yen for implementing organizations.

This is the position at the centre of the scheme. It receives a grant from JANPIA, sets its own theme, selects implementing organizations through an open call, distributes funds and supervises them.

The FY2026 general round is divided into four project types, each with its own indicative scale.

Of the grant, at least 85% must go to implementing organizations and no more than 15% may be kept as administrative cost. Standing on the distributing side therefore means fitting your own staff costs inside that 15%.

Grassroots activity support has both a national window and a regional window. The regional window covers ten regions, and projects aimed at one or several prefectures are eligible. This is where a locally rooted organization can move to the distributing side.

Alongside grants there is an equity window. A fund distribution organization funded by JANPIA invests in companies working on social issues.

According to Cabinet Office materials, five organizations[1] have been selected on the investment side, and they have made four investments. The scale per implementing organization is described as several tens of millions of yen.

Two structures run in parallel. The fund type creates an investment limited partnership and draws co-investment from financial institutions, with JANPIA's contribution to the fund envisaged at 500 million to 1 billion yen a year. The corporate type has several companies form a consortium and establish a company that specialises in investing and supporting management.

The recipient must be a company. Nonprofit corporations cannot use this window.

This is the position that delivers the work, and the tier that receives most of the money in the scheme.

There is one point to keep straight: you cannot apply directly to JANPIA. You apply to a call issued by a fund distribution organization that has already been selected. Preparation therefore means tracking which fund distribution organization will call, on what theme, and when. JANPIA announces the selected fund distribution organizations first, and each of them then issues its own call for implementing organizations.

The indicative scale depends on the project type. The observed average is 16.24 million yen per project, over a maximum of three years as a rule.

At least 20% of project costs must be secured from the organization's own funds or other private funds. In practice that 20% is where applications most often stall. The guidelines explain the principle as a mechanism to avoid creating organizations dependent on dormant deposit funding.

This is a second-tier position that distributes no money. It provides support in people and knowledge only. Results have been published since FY2023, and 15 organizations[1] have been selected as activity support organizations, reaching 50 supported organizations.

An application picks one of two target categories and as many of four support fields as the programme needs.

One target category is chosen as a rule. Support fields may be combined. Programmes limited to a geographic area are permitted. An organization may submit only one project to the activity support call.

The indicative ceiling for a single programme is around 50 million yen for a three-year programme[2]. Project periods run from one to three years depending on the content.

What an applicant needs here is the ability to design a programme that supports other organisations. Those selected so far are mostly regional foundations, nonprofit centres and sector networks, and they include an organisation that runs its own frontline work and stepped into a supporting role. An analysis of three years of results is in Three years of the activity support tier（このサイトの記事）.

This position receives non-financial support from an activity support organization. The guidelines define supported organizations as bodies that provide, or aim to provide, public-interest activity, and a parenthesis adds that individuals are included.

No money comes with it, but the requirements are the lightest of the five. Newly formed organisations, unincorporated groups and individuals still at the planning stage all have a route in.

Applications go to the calls issued by the activity support organizations that were selected. Each designs its own programme and selects supported organizations through an open call. Which doors open in a given year is therefore decided by which activity support organizations were selected that year.

Four questions narrow it down.

1. Are you distributing funds or receiving them? Distributing puts you in the second tier, receiving in the third
2. Can you cover at least 20% of project costs yourself? Implementing organizations face this as a rule. If not yet, the unfunded doors are still open
3. Are you a company or a nonprofit corporation? The investment window assumes a company
4. Do you run projects, or support other organisations? If supporting others is your core work, the activity support window fits directly

There is no minimum on years since establishment or years of financial statements. The FY2026 general-round guidelines note against the required documents that organisations less than three years old should submit only the periods available. Age is not a reason to give up.

None of these arise once the tiers and the calling bodies are matched up correctly.

There are five doors, and each carries different requirements and a different scale. What to settle first is whether you are distributing or receiving, and whether you are on a funded branch or an unfunded one. Once that is decided, exactly one set of guidelines applies to you.

Neither age nor size closes a door. When a door looks closed, it is usually because the tier has been misread by one.

References

FY2026 Fund Distribution Organization (Grant) General Round 1 Call Guidelines — Japan Network for Public Interest Activities (JANPIA) (2026)

FY2024 Activity Support Organization (Grant) Call Guidelines — Japan Network for Public Interest Activities (JANPIA) (2024)

On the Dormant Deposits Utilization Scheme — Cabinet Office (2026)

Q&A on the Use of Dormant Deposits (prepared July 2024, updated August 2026) — Cabinet Office (2026)