Pension

Hello all. I have lived in Japan for a year, and did some part time last year. Now I'm not working. I got a letter from the pension scheme with an amount of 21000yen, and when I showed it to my Japanese husband, he said it's nothing and I don't have to pay. After googling, I read that you have to pay pension even if we don't work. My question is: do I need to pay pension?

As I understand, you have to be part of the kokumin nenkin scheme unless you have a very good reason to classify being exempt, even if you are not working.

Are you a spouse who is dependent on your husband's income? If so he needs to register you through his employer then you will not have to pay anything but you will be counted as contributing and therefore receive pension.

I am a dependant spouse and my husband is under his companies pension scheme (as well as kokumin nenkin by default because of this)
When I came to Japan he had to fill in a form and his employer had to register me at the pensions office as a dependent. You will then get a pension book etc through the post.

Tell your husband he needs to speak to his employer about this, he should have registered you within 14 days of moving to Japan.
It might be because of this you might have up pay it as you didn't register, or they may backdate and let you off, but you are normally not exempt