Wife paying into pension from abroad

[Tōhoku]

Hi Everyone,

My first post here on RetireJapan forum, excited to get some discussions going!

My wife is a Japanese citizen and has paid into the public pension for about 5 years when working in Japan. We live in Canada currently but seriously considering to relocate to Tōhoku in the next 5 years (Akita or Miyagi on the top of the list, especially Sendai).

I'm wondering if it's a good idea for her to pay into her pension while we are abroad as I see a few advantages so far:

• It appears Canada and Japan have a pension treaty so if we retire in one of these countries we can collect both pensions that we've paid into

• The currency conversion is pretty decent from CAD to JPY so maybe it's more buying power paying into the pension while abroad?

Anyone in a similar situation or have any recommendations on pensions? We're in our 30's so I just want to get our priorities right for the future.

Thanks!

[Tkydon]

Hi Everyone,

My first post here on RetireJapan forum, excited to get some discussions going!

My wife is a Japanese citizen and has paid into the public pension for about 5 years when working in Japan. We live in Canada currently but seriously considering to relocate to Tōhoku in the next 5 years (Akita or Miyagi on the top of the list, especially Sendai).

I'm wondering if it's a good idea for her to pay into her pension while we are abroad as I see a few advantages so far:

• It appears Canada and Japan have a pension treaty so if we retire in one of these countries we can collect both pensions that we've paid into

• The currency conversion is pretty decent from CAD to JPY so maybe it's more buying power paying into the pension while abroad?

Anyone in a similar situation or have any recommendations on pensions? We're in our 30's so I just want to get our priorities right for the future.

Thanks!

Whilst the Totalization Agreement means that time spent in one country counts against the minimum threshold to qualify in the other country, the payouts are based on the actual amounts payed in in each country, so it would be a good idea for your wife to make Voluntary Overseas Contributions to the Japan System from Canada.

Minimum Qualification for Japan Pension is credit for 10 years or 120 months of contributions.

https://www.nenkin.go.jp/service/sceneb ... html#cms03

As a Japanese Citizen, your wife can make the Voluntary Overseas Contributions to the Japan System from Canada.
She should contact the Nenkin Pension Office that deals with her account, and she will need her Basic Pension Number in her Pension Tetcho...

Better to have both pensions paid up as much as possible for maximum payout on each side, and as you say, the weak Yen makes it cheaper to send money over at the moment.

If you have been in Canada for a while, your wife can back pay upto 2 years of unpaid contributions to fill the holes in her contribution history and increase both the qualifying periods for Japan and the final Japan Payout based on number of credited contributions.

Definitely recommended.

[Tōhoku]

Thanks for the detailed response! Will definitely start paying into her Japanese pension from abroad

[kuma]

Late reply, but just to add that as a voluntary contributor, your wife should also be eligible to contribute to the 'additional pension' (fuka nenkin), which is a relatively small but extremely efficient boost to the pension: https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Fuka_nenkin

[Tōhoku]

Sorry for late reply but thanks for the info!