Pension book

Hello,

In another thread i read about a pension book in Japan.
I have some questions about that (assuming that a pension book is a system where you 'save' money for when you retire at age x.
Does everybody in Japan who has a job, automatically gets a pension book or do you need to sign up for that? And since when does this system exists?
Butch

You have to the go to the municipal hall and register for the national pension. Or if you are an employee, your employer should sign you up for the employees' pension system.

Thanks for the response Uji,
Just a follow up. Does this mean that not everybody thas had/has a job does have a (mandatory) pension. That is if you do not go to the municipal office or your employer does not made any arrangements you are not entitled for a pension.
Also do you need to pay a kind of monthly premium/fee for the pension (book)?
And also: Since when is this system in existing?
Note the reason i want to know is whether a Japanese friend who had a job in Japan for a couple of years and now lives outside of Japan, is entitled to get a pension when reaching the age of 65 (or another age?).
Butch

Does this mean that not everybody thas had/has a job does have a (mandatory) pension. That is if you do not go to the municipal office or your employer does not made any arrangements you are not entitled for a pension.

You are not supposed to, but it is possible to not enroll in the national pension scheme. If you are not enrolled then naturally you can't expect to collect national pension when you retire. The system is explained here:

http://www.sia.go.jp/e/np.html

Also, note that is is possible to join late and pay back payments. I'm not sure how many years you can pay but I've heard up to two years of back payments may be possible. There was also talk of allowing up to 10 years of payment in arrears with interest applied.

Also do you need to pay a kind of monthly premium/fee for the pension (book)?

Yes, there are monthly premiums based on your income.

And also: Since when is this system in existing?

Wikipedia says its been around in its current from since the mid 1980s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_welfare_in_Japan

Note the reason i want to know is whether a Japanese friend who had a job in Japan for a couple of years and now lives outside of Japan, is entitled to get a pension when reaching the age of 65 (or another age?).

If he paid into the system for a minimum of 25 years, he would then be able to collect benefits when turning 60.

Thanks yllwsmrf for the references.
I guess when you worked as a Japanese in Japan for a couple of years (around 1970) and paid into the system and left the country and lost your Japanese citizenship you cannot get anything back from your paid premium (lived not 25 working years in Japan and did not claim a �elump sum�f after leaving Japan).
Butch

You have to have paid in at least 25 years into the system (through your employer or on your own) before you reach 60 or 65 to be eligible.

So in your friend's case - after he worked a few years in Japan, during which I assume he was under the employer's pension scheme - who has he been employed by since then? If it is, for example, a Japanese company who sent him to another country to work for their branch, then it is likely that the company has some arrangements for him to receive pension when he returns to Japan.

But if he went to live outside Japan, completely on his own, registered himself as "moving out of Japan" with the authorities, and has been working for a non-Japanese entity, and even gave up his citizenship, he might not be eligible at all. I know that some countries have "mutual recognition" agreements, so that, for example, the number of years he's paid into the German system is converted and counted toward that 25 years (if he wants to return to Japan), but he would need to look into this to see if the country of his current residence has any such agreement with Japan.