If you have been paying into it, that is…


Ever since 1986 it has been compulsory for people living in Japan to pay into the national pension scheme. Compulsory but not enforced.

That seems to be changing, and one of the aims of the My Number system is clearly to track social security, income, and assets more closely.

The Pension Authority in Japan has a website that shows your pension contributions and, once you have paid in enough, your projected payouts. It’s very easy to register and I recommend you check your official record for mistakes.

You can see my payments in the image above.

I can probably claim the red ‘未加’ months as I wasn’t in Japan at that point, and the underlined ‘国年’ months are when I applied for reduced payments due to losing my job (I have the option of paying the difference in arrears).


​It’s interesting to see where you are. You still need to pay in for 25 years to vest in the scheme (this is due to be reduced to ten years, but we’re not sure when as it is linked to the rise in the consumption tax, which has also been delayed), although you can get credit for the years between turning 20 and your arrival in Japan.

​Until last year, some of us were paying into the kyosai nenkin pension scheme, a variant of kosei nenkin for public servants and members of certain unions (doctors, teachers, etc.). Kyosai nenkin was eliminated and members were rolled into kosei nenkin in October last year.

​The website is slowly adding information for former kyosai nenkin members, and they were doing it based on your birthday, so I got access to mine a couple of weeks ago.

Around the same time I also received my pension postcard detailing payments last year. My payments, and my wife’s, and my employer match for kosei nenkin, add up to about 1.2m yen. To be honest I’d have been happier keeping that and investing it myself :O

Any thoughts on the Japanese National Pension?

11 Responses

  1. I’m in kokumin nenkin myself, which has a low flat monthly payment. Being self employed and American, I was informed last year that paying into nenkin takes care of my (draconian) obligations to pay self employment taxes to the US government. And being that it’s a flat rate and not income based, is way cheaper than paying American social security at above average income levels.
    Given that and the fact that it’s transferable to US SS if you decide to return, it really is a no-brainer if you’re American and self employed.
    Speaking of which, is there a treaty with the UK? Maybe not in your case since you came over so young, but for others it’d be interesting to know how this is handled. I found out that Japanese nenkin is redeemable at the post office I believe it was in the US, but it’s paid out separately. It does count toward your minimum requirement of 10 years for collecting American SS, I think. Not sure about the other way around as I don’t plan on retiring here.

    1. “it’s transferable to US SS if you decide to return”
      Are you 100% sure about that? I’m not a US citizen, but the way the Japan/France agreement works is that the share you paid to Japan is not “transferred”, it’s just a portion than you can claim from Japan.
      For example, imagine I pay into the Nenkin for 10 years in Japan, then 30 years in France. This means I’ll be able to claim 10 years worth of Japan Nenkin from Japan, and 30 years worth of French SS from France.
      It doesn’t mean that I automatically get 40 years worth of French social security from France (that would be too good to be true).
      I’d be surprised if the rule was different for the US. The French/Japan agreement just ensures you don’t have to work a total of 80 years to get your full social security when you work in different countries

      1. Glad someone caught that–yes, the nenkin payout is separate from SS payouts. The important difference for me is that Social Security payments are 13% of income for self-employed, whereas Kokumin Nenkin payments are a fixed 16,000 yen or so per month. Big difference, especially as your income increases.
        As Ben said, I’d rather save as much of my income as I can to invest myself. 🙂

      2. Just to add, I think the transferable part was regarding the number of years you have to pay in… maybe I should look it up again to be sure though.
        Here’s what the US SS website says:
        “When you apply for benefits––You may have some Social Security credits in both the United States and Japan but not have enough to be eligible for benefits in one country or the other. The agreement makes it easier to qualify for benefits by letting you add together your Social Security credits in both countries. For more details, see the section on “Monthly benefits” section.”
        https://www.ssa.gov/international/Agreement_Pamphlets/japan.html

    2. Hi Sendug
      I came over the week after graduating from university, so I have never paid into the UK system and am not going to start now (although there are provisions for expats to make payments). I hope to save and invest my way to an acceptable standard of living so I don’t need to worry about the kindness of strangers or governments 🙂

      1. I know we’ve talked about this before on Facebook but the British state pension for expats with national insurance contributions is a really good deal, 700 pounds a year if you pay that for 35 years you get the full pension of 150 pounds a week. Not even the most generous annuity offers that.

      2. Hi Gareth
        I agree it makes sense to continue paying if you’re already in the system.
        Not so sure about doing it from scratch. To pay 700 pounds a year for 35 years, you need to believe that:
        1. you’ll live past 75 (pretty likely)
        2. future UK governments won’t change the rules (increase premiums, reduce payouts, means-test, stop paying pensions to non-residents, increase pension ages). I’m less sure of this.
        Of course, it is a cheap annuity, And it might be good to have diversified currency income.
        But in the end it’s a personal choice, and I have a bit of a libertarian streak. Don’t want to rely on the kindness of strangers (or governments) in the future 🙂

  2. can you expand on the employer match? is that for all servants, or is that something that is specific to your workplace? id imagine i am employed under most of the same regulations as a public servant.

    1. Oh, very simple. For Kosei Nenkin, you only pay half the contribution (what you see come out of your paycheck). Your employer pays the other half.
      Doesn’t really make a lot of difference day to day, but explains why the kosei nenkin payouts are so much better than kokumin nenkin.

  3. Hi, I went to the pension website but couldn’t see where to register. I can’t read Japanese, can I do it in English? Thanks.

  4. Hi Vikki
    Unfortunately the website is only in Japanese for now. I will try and write a post explaining how to use it for English speakers in the future. Stay tuned!