New Insurance Changes for Foreigners

Hi

I'm an ALT working for a company. I make about 230,000yen a month before taxes. A few weeks ago, they told us that there had been some changes made by the government related to health insurance and pension schemes.

Just now, I am on my companies Social Insurance Scheme (health and pension in one). that is only about 8,000 - 10,000yen a month. I also pay an extra 1,000 yen to go towards the government unemployment scheme (they started that one at the beginning of this year).

But the government has now said that if a foreigner has been working for more than 2 months in Japan and whose weekly working hours are less than 3/4 of the weekly hours of their companies office workers, then they must change over to the National Health Insurance and seperate pension scheme. If they don't then the government has the right to regect your visa renewal. (But they have not stated exactly how strict they'll be)

I checked out the National Health Insurance costs. It's about 22,000yen a month for my salary and area and then there's the 10,000yen you guys mentioned for the government pension scheme.

So that's 384,000 a year. And I've been told that I may be asked to pay up to two years in back payment. So that could be 768,000yen. I mean, f&#k that! I paid my social insurance as the government asked me to for two years since I started.

I spoke to some Japanese people about this and they told me that they pay no way near 22,000yen a month for their insurance. I know that salary is a factor but they told me that their company pays most of it.

My company has said that it is not allowed to help us out with this and we are responsible for the full amount. Is there any truth to that, or are they just trying to pull one to save money?

Cheers

Adam

The new requirement is that you be either on social insurance or national health insurance (both are government run). Is your company's health insurance in fact the official government one? If so, then you should be able to stay on it. If it is actually a private health scheme with no relation to the government scheme then in order to renew your visa in the future you will need to switch to national health. This may mean making back payments, as private health insurance payments are not recognised by the government.

I switched to national health from a private scheme a couple of years ago and didn't have to make back payments, but I switched when I moved to a new city so that may have been the reason I wasn't asked to make back payments.

If you are on the official shakai hoken, a) you should not need to make back payments as you have already been paying into a government scheme, as legally required, and b) your company should probably not be kicking you off it even if you work semi-full time (many dispatch ALT and eikaiwa companies try to avoid their reponsibilities for shakai hoken because they have to make contributions for each employee, whereas for national health they don't), so you should be asking them some pointed questions and possibly contacting the Labour Standards Office.

When you become an ALT, does the company you work for go over all this with you - health insurance and what not? Or is that something you figure out all on your own?

I'm working fulltime and got an insurance card from the following company: http://www.kyoukaikenpo.or.jp/ This is the one you need for the visa requirement? Reading this post got me a bit worried for my visa extension.

Um, this certainly won't apply to everyone, but I just changed my visa status and extended my period of stay. NOBODY ASKED ME FOR PROOF OF ENROLLMENT IN ANY NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE/ PENSION SCHEME AT ANY POINT OF THE APPLICATION PROCESS. I don't know if I'm lucky, but thrilled nonetheless.

Makes me wonder if ALT dispatch and Eikaiwa companies are trying to scare their current workers into quitting (going home), to keep prices (and insurance-related hassle) down? Hmm.

The best way to fight a corrupt industry is to leave it -like I did. There's better out there, people.