Japanese pension upon leaving Japan

[Roger Van Zant]

I have been paying into the Japanese pension for about 17 years, always through 厚生年金 as opposed to 国民年金.
I'm 44 now, so still have many more years to pay in if I want the full pension.

I may have an opportunity to move to the US in order to work for my company's subsidiary over there (Oregon state).
The job offers a significant salary increase, even taking into account the higher cost of living in Oregon.
My current job in Japan has almost zero room for advancement, and I am pretty fed up with the whole situation; no salary increase since 2016.

I think I would stop being an employee of my current Japanese company, and switch to being an employee of the US subsidiary.
I would then be paid in dollars and have to pay all the required US taxes and social security.
I would be on a work-visa (5 year term?) in the US, as I am a UK citizen.

I have Japanese PR, if that matters. I really don't want to lose this, but I also don't want to break any laws attempting to retain it.
I own a house here with 14 years remaining on the mortgage. I am looking to sell this, probably with zero profit or at a loss.
It is in a bad location in terms of renting out; also I have zero interest in becoming a landlord.

I pay Class 2 NI contributions monthly for my UK pension, and am on target for a full UK pension.

Questions:

(1) If I never come back to live/work in Japan ever again, can I keep paying into the Japanese pension from the US? (Is it even worth it?)
(2) If I stop paying in, can I keep my pension pot in Japan as it is, just leave it on the back-burner until I reach pensionable age?
(3) If I decide to come back to Japan to live/work, can I just commence paying in again from the time I return?
(4) If (1) and (2) above are not possible, will I receive a payout of the amount I have paid in (17 years or so)?

I don't want to forfeit a bunch of years unnecessarily.
I know the Japanese pension is not much, but it is still a significant amount of money to me.

Any advice would be appreciated.

P.S.
I also have an iDeCo, and t-NISA, so would like advice on what happens with these, too.
However, I can post this again in the iDeCO and t-NISA specific threads if required.

[Tkydon]

I have been paying into the Japanese pension for about 17 years, always through 厚生年金 as opposed to 国民年金.
I'm 44 now, so still have many more years to pay in if I want the full pension.

I may have an opportunity to move to the US in order to work for my company's subsidiary over there (Oregon state).
The job offers a significant salary increase, even taking into account the higher cost of living in Oregon.
My current job in Japan has almost zero room for advancement, and I am pretty fed up with the whole situation; no salary increase since 2016.

I think I would stop being an employee of my current Japanese company, and switch to being an employee of the US subsidiary.
I would then be paid in dollars and have to pay all the required US taxes and social security.
I would be on a work-visa (5 year term?) in the US, as I am a UK citizen.

I have Japanese PR, if that matters. I really don't want to lose this, but I also don't want to break any laws attempting to retain it.

You can keep your PR. You need to get a Multiple Re-Entry Permit from the Immigration Office, and keep that and your Zairyu Card updated by visiting Japan before the expiry of the Re-Entry Permit to renew both. The Re-Entry Permit issued by the Immigration Office can be extended outside Japan under extenuating circumstances.

I own a house here with 14 years remaining on the mortgage. I am looking to sell this, probably with zero profit or at a loss.
It is in a bad location in terms of renting out; also I have zero interest in becoming a landlord.

I pay Class 2 NI contributions monthly for my UK pension, and am on target for a full UK pension.

Questions:

(1) If I never come back to live/work in Japan ever again, can I keep paying into the Japanese pension from the US? (Is it even worth it?)

No. Japanese can make contributions overseas, but foreigners can't.

(2) If I stop paying in, can I keep my pension pot in Japan as it is, just leave it on the back-burner until I reach pensionable age?

Yes, you'll get about (17 x 12) /480 of the then current Japanese Pension at 65, based on your contribution history.

(3) If I decide to come back to Japan to live/work, can I just commence paying in again from the time I return?

Yes.

(4) If (1) and (2) above are not possible, will I receive a payout of the amount I have paid in (17 years or so)?

No.
If you had paid in less than 10 years, you could apply for a refund of a maximum of 5 years' contributions, but you are already past the point where you are no longer eligible to apply for a refund.
Many people who took a refund wish they hadn't later...

I don't want to forfeit a bunch of years unnecessarily.
I know the Japanese pension is not much, but it is still a significant amount of money to me.

Any advice would be appreciated.

P.S.
I also have an iDeCo, and t-NISA, so would like advice on what happens with these, too.
However, I can post this again in the iDeCO and t-NISA specific threads if required.

The iDECO will be frozen until you are 60. You won't be able to make contributions whilst overseas, but you will be able to pick it up if/when you return to Japan.

If you tell them your assignment to the US is temporary and you plan to come back to Japan in a couple of years, you can probably keep the t-NISA, but you won't be able to make contributions whilst overseas.

[Roger Van Zant]

Thank you for your advice.

I am happy just to leave the Japanese pension and iDeCo; both are not huge sums of money (only started the iDeCo two years ago at 12,000 yen per month), but every yen counts in retirement.

Can I draw the Japanese pension from the US, if I stay there forever?

I'll check into the t-NISA more.
However, I am sure I can enroll in something similar in the US (I currently put the whole annual 400,000 yen into the eMAxis Slim All Country).
Incidentally, what is the US equivalent of the eMaxis Slim All Country?

With regard to not losing the PR, when I come back to Japan to renew the re-entry permit and/or zairyu card, won't they need proof of residence in Japan? I will no longer have a Japanese address by that point.
I am single with no family in Japan, so it's not like I can change my address to my wife's parents' address or something.

Thanks.

[adamu]

Incidentally, what is the US equivalent of the eMaxis Slim All Country?

It's not a strict equivalent, because it uses a different index that includes small cap companies too, but this is the fund that is also sold as the VT ETF (which is wrapped up by some Japanese mutual funds).

https://investor.vanguard.com/investmen ... file/vtwax

[Roger Van Zant]

Incidentally, what is the US equivalent of the eMaxis Slim All Country?

It's not a strict equivalent, because it uses a different index that includes small cap companies too, but this is the fund that is also sold as the VT ETF (which is wrapped up by some Japanese mutual funds).

https://investor.vanguard.com/investmen ... file/vtwax

Thanks for the link.
Minimum investment of $3000 though....welp!
Does the US have something like the t-NISA (or iDeCo), where you can just pay in a small amount each month and build it up over time?

[adamu]

For investing in the US, check out the Bogleheads wiki and forum (looks familiar )

They can probably answer your questions faster and better than anyone here.

Hey, Japan has a higher GDP and is a higher portion of the global stock market than Canada (Actually #2 after the US), maybe I should ask them to put a retirewiki.jp link on their forum front page too