Health insurance after stopping work - my research to date

[Stewart]

Here goes..... when you leave employment and don't take another job:

1. If you are under 65 you still have to pay your national pension contributions - these are set at about ￥20,000 a month and paid through city hall. Of course, once you start getting the Japanese pension you stop paying into this scheme.

IN ADDITION, 2. You have to either join the national health insurance scheme or be in some other official Japanese scheme - private health insurance doesn't count.
3. How much your health insurance premiums will be per month is determined (like all taxes in Japan) by your previous year's salary. So, if you leave at the end of March then you will have a full year's salary up to December 31st of the previous calendar year that your health insurance premiums are based on.
4. This is where things got surprising as each city calculates premiums in their own way and they provide on-line calculators to let you know what to expect. As I mentioned before Hanno City (where I live) shows a premium for me of ￥526,000 for this year but other cities show much higher amounts. Sorry Mr Retire Japan but Sendai came out as the 2nd most expensive city we found. The highest was Sapporo.
5. Next year's premiums would be based on this year's salary - so Jan~March from my current job plus anything else I earn this year. This will mean a much lower charge after one year of not working.

HOWEVER, 6. we have the option to stay in the Private Schools and Universities Mutual Fund for a maximum of two years after retirement. Health insurance premiums for this scheme are much cheaper as the payments don't increase once your salary reaches ￥380,000 a month.

THEREFORE, 7. the cheapest option for me is to stay in the Private Schools and Universities Mutual Fund for one year, then leave and switch to the national scheme.

Here is the link to the Mutual Fund website as I think there will be quite a few teachers of all kinds on this forum. There is a lot in English BUT the real detail is only in Japanese.

https://www.shigakukyosai.jp/en/index.html

[captainspoke]

I stayed in the uni system for two years post retirement, then switched a couple years ago (which was quite easy). Rather than having it all figured out, it was the path of least resistance.

I'm not certain whether pension(s) count towards that income number you mention: ¥380,000/month. Very probably, but I'm not sure. This depends of course if you're planing to continue working or not (or have passive income)--pension alone will not be that much.

[Stewart]

It was my husband who thought about it - it would never have occured to me that I could stay in the same system and hasn't to any of my colleagues either.

[RetireJapan]

Thanks Stewart, very timely!

I was aware of the 'stay on the kyosai health insurance' option and planned to use it if it was going to be cheaper.

One thing I was wondering is whether it would be possible to become someone's dependent and thus avoid paying large health insurance premiums at all. Does anyone know about this?

[Beaglehound]

Thanks Stewart, very timely!

I was aware of the 'stay on the kyosai health insurance' option and planned to use it if it was going to be cheaper.

One thing I was wondering is whether it would be possible to become someone's dependent and thus avoid paying large health insurance premiums at all. Does anyone know about this?

I only have experience of going the other way, from dependent status to non-dependent. In that case, I had to come off my wife’s shakai hoken once I was earning over 1.3 million a year (gross, no expenses to be deducted). In practice, this meant if the three month rolling earning average went over 324k, and could be expected to continue. For becoming dependent, I imagine they would want to see evidence that your earnings are below this, but for how long a period and how you would prove it, I don’t know.

[Stewart]

I would do this in a heart beat but sadly my British same sex marriage won't work for me like that in Japan.

[hbd]

I was aware of the 'stay on the kyosai health insurance' option and planned to use it if it was going to be cheaper.

The savings during the first 2 years of retirement sound quite substantial so would certainly help my budget calculations for retirement , but I thought this 私学 insurance system was not available to national university employees. Or can one similarly stay on in the (国立大）kyosai system for a while after retiring, so as to avoid the higher tax based on one's full salary during the last year of employment?

[RetireJapan]

I was aware of the 'stay on the kyosai health insurance' option and planned to use it if it was going to be cheaper.

The savings during the first 2 years of retirement sound quite substantial so would certainly help my budget calculations for retirement , but I thought this 私学 insurance system was not available to national university employees. Or can one similarly stay on in the (国立大）kyosai system for a while after retiring, so as to avoid the higher tax based on one's full salary during the last year of employment?

Yes, one of my colleagues retired last year and is planning to stay on the kyosai health insurance for two extra years. Makes sense for him as he has a dependent spouse.

For me, I still need to run some numbers and see what kokumin kenko hoken looks like vis a vis the kyosai one. Apparently the office was happy to sit down and go through the numbers with my colleague, so I'm planning to do that later in the year.

[TJKansai]

I would do this in a heart beat but sadly my British same sex marriage won't work for me like that in Japan.

Have you checked? I have heard of some local areas offering same-sex benefits, and with the LGBTQ+ awareness these days it wouldn't surprise me if health insurance gets included.

In any case, thanks for doing the legwork on the insurance options. This will help me when I do take the plunge (at 60), although I will need to figure out if it makes sense if we are on an extended roadtrip.

[hbd]

Yes, one of my colleagues retired last year and is planning to stay on the kyosai health insurance for two extra years. Makes sense for him as he has a dependent spouse.

Some good news for once - thank you! I too will ask for a numbers outline at the relevant office.