Japan Pension

I'm confused by the Japan Pension system and need help.

I came to Japan under a spouse visa - Me/USA married to Him/JPN. I didn't work, so my health insurance and pension was covered by my husband.

I have a job interview for a full time, salaried position soon, and assuming I am hired, I want to know what to expect from the company with regard to pension. I'm lost the more I read about it online.

For example, with health insurance, you are either in the National Health Insurance plan or you are in your Employers Health Insurance plan. It's nice and simple.

- Is the pension plan the same? If a full time, salary worker you are only in the Employers Pension Insurance plan or you have to also be in the National Pension Insurance plan, too - both together?

- If both, is your employer deducting the price of both from your monthly salary or only the amount for the Employers Pension Insurance (and employers health insurance)?

My reason for asking is to know what to ask and expect so there are no red flags as to why this/that was never mentioned, AND, to know why certain amounts are taken from my salary each month.

before you get a job (you have no income)
about health insurance:
health insurance is covered by husband's insurance.
if his insurance is national health insurance, the fee is charged to your husband, because you have no income.
if his insurance is employer's insurance, the fee is calculated from his monthly salary. (your fee is free.)
about pension:
his pension is calculated from his monthly salary.(your pension is free.)

after you get a job (you are a full time worker and you join the employer's insurance)
about your husband, the fees are almost no change.
your health insurance fee will be calculated from your monthly salary.
your pension fee will be calculated from your monthly salary.

the difference between before and after getting a job.
health insurance: the coverage is the same.
pension:
before getting a job. you will only have a minimal pension benefit.
after getting a job. you will have a benefit corresponding to your average income of all working time.
no one can simulate the benefit which you will get when retired, before you work.

Thanks, Ken.

But if/when getting a full time job, in addition to having the employer insurance and pension taxed from my salary - would I also have to pay simultaneously into the National Pension or would that be optional?

"why this/that was never mentioned,"
because the system is complicated. everybody can be in different cases. without knowing your family's details, no one can explain your case.
everybody will has a letter from Japan Pension Service explaining your pension payment record every year. you can confirm your payments.

"AND, to know why certain amounts are taken from my salary each month."
because the laws.

by the way,
after you get a full-time job, your husband must tell that information to his company. they will tell him necessary paperwork for his company.

double payment will never happen.
at your husband company,
your health insurance and pension will be removed from company's system. that information will be reported to Japan Pension Service and city office.
at your new company,
your new health insurance and pension will be joined at your new company's name. that information will be reported to Japan Pension Service.
Japan Pension Service (probably) will tell city office that you join a company's health insurance and pension.
if you make double-payment, they will send a letter to you how much they will return you the money. you need to send a return mail writing your bank name and account number.
similar system (preventing double payment) works in health insurance. no double payment.

When reading about this confusing pension topic, many different online sources made it sound as though people need to be enrolled in BOTH pensions - National and their Employers. Of course it made no sense to me, which is why I asked.

Also, there was mention of red flags if a company doesn't mention the pension scheme, or tries to not emroll you, etc. Even reading Reddit, Japan Today and other articles, it felt like increasingly more confusing each time.

I believe even the pension website, official one for Japan, mentions that when you are hired at a new job, and enroll in that company's Pension plan, you are automatically enrolled in the National plan, too. Maybe it's the way the word it, or blatantly wrong, but it just made no sense.

So everyone here only pays into one pension plan, same as with insurance - either NATIONAL or EMPLOYER. One or the other.

The way it works is that the national pension scheme is the "basic" one, and the employer's schemes provide for something "on top of" it. It is like a double-decker. Maybe that is why they spoke about it as if there were two that you needed to be enrolled into. But it is "either or," as you correctly understood :)

So if I am, let's say, just working part-time (and not a dependent), I would just enroll in the national pension scheme, and pay in my contribution.

When I am hired full-time, I will take the same pension ID number so to say and get enrolled in the employer's, which carries over from my pension account. The employer puts in its contribution as well, so you get better pension payments later (if you qualify).

The "red flag" refers to any company who (because of THEIR cost) doesn't enroll its full-time employees into its schemes, which it is supposed to do.


In your specific case:
When you get a full-time job (from being a dependent on your husband's employer schemes), you report to your husband's employer that you are leaving his coverage, and you independently sign up with the schemes of your employer.

Last question then...

Once I am officially off my husband's employer's pension scheme, and on my own employer's pension scheme - I would not be getting any sort of letters/contact from the national pension office telling me I have to pay into that one, too?

Again, the reason I ask is this "double decker" you mention, and everything saying you must pay into the national pension, and also employer's if they have one.

No.

What I meant by "double decker" is in the amount of pension entitlement. What you pay in is just one :)

Some of what was written above is accurate, but it's not clearly presented. It doesn't need to be so confusing.

Since you appear to be living in Japan, it would be in your best interest to take your ID numbers -- in particular, your nenkin number and possibly your kojin bango ("My Number"), along with photo ID -- and go directly to the nenkin office in your city. You can usually just walk in and talk with someone on the spot. If you do that, you should be able to get clear answers, including a printout of all your nenkin data from the different nenkin schemes, both kokumin and kosei.

Likewise, you can do the same thing at your city hall tax office. In fact, I'd go to BOTH places if I were you.

And if your husband goes with you and has his ID numbers, that would be good. Otherwise, you can pick up an ininjo form, have your husband fill it out, take it with you to the nenkin office, and get answers about both his nenkin situation and yours without him being present.

So are the answers given corect or not?

I have no doubt that what has been done thus far has been proper and the correct path. I have not worked in Japan since living here. And since married to Japanese national, my health insurance and pension have been thru my husband (as his dependent).

Health insurance is cut and dry to me. I am currently under my husband's plan - my insurance card is identicla to his because it's from his employer's plan. If I obtain a full time job, I would switch to my employer's plan. If I were a freelancer, for example, I would joing the National plan.

The one confusion area for me is the pension. If it's as simple as all people living here only have 1 pension plan at one time - nothing more, nothing less - than that too is simple. In my case, I am not working since arrival but a married dependent, so my husband's employer pension payments cover me/mine. If I get a full time job, I come off my husband's employers pension, and go to my employers pension. THAT is a simple answer if true.

But when I read the Japanese official pension office website (in English), it talks of how when your new employer registers you with the employers pension plan, you are also automatically enrolled in the National pension and makes it sound like you legally are required to have both at that point. Perhaps they meant you are legally required to have SOME form of pension scheme. But not both, correct?

Hi Mary,

You seem to want to simple, cut-and-dry answers to a complex set of questions. For instance, yes, if, as you suggested, you were to become a freelancer, you could join the National Health Plan right away. But there is another -- often less expensive -- option that many people don't know about. Japan has a program, similar to COBRA in the USA, that allows people to keep their previous health insurance for up to two years instead of switching immediately to the National Health Plan, which is often more expensive. Talking directly to someone in your husband's personnel department would be a good idea in that situation.

You mentioned that your pension has been through your husband as his dependent, and that your husband's employer pension payments cover you. That implies you are probably only getting numerical credit toward the necessary 300 months (or, according to the recent law change, 120 months), but no actual financial credit because you aren't working. If I were in your situation, I'd check into that directly with the nenkin office and ask for an explanation.

The pension system here is not simple. It is confusing even for Japanese people, and the rules change often.

You wrote:
"...when I read the Japanese official pension office website (in English), it talks of how when your new employer registers you with the employers pension plan, you are also automatically enrolled in the National pension and makes it sound like you legally are required to have both at that point. Perhaps they meant you are legally required to have SOME form of pension scheme. But not both, correct?"

Yes. Japan has a two-tier nenkin system. For instance, in my case, as a full-time employee of a university, I have paid for many decades into what has now become the kosei nenkin system, not into the kokumin system. However, I will get BOTH a kosei nenkin pension (the larger pension) and a kokumin nenkin pension (the smaller pension). The kokumin nenkin part of the pension is paltry, even for someone who has paid into the nenkin system for many decades.

By the way, if you are from a country such as the USA that has social security totalization with Japan, that adds another layer of complexity. Look into totalization for Japan and your home country.

In short, if I were in your situation, I would not go with simple answers from a forum like this. Take an hour of two of your time and go to your local nenkin office and get some official answers in writing. If language is an issue, take a Japanese-speaking friend.