Thanks to the great advice I have received on Retire Japan about pension investing in Japan, the last tax year I well and truly pensioned out with the state pension, Ideco and the small business pension allowances giving me just under two million yen in pension contributions deductibles for the first time. This has really taken down my income and Municiple tax bill. However, I was shocked to discover that when I received my most recent health insurance premiums that all these allowances have no influence on my health insurance bill, and that they done count
In my local city 14.85% of your salary for over 40 year olds seems quite steep for health insurance and quite regressive for those on low salaries.
On the other hand, I am quite a fan of how the Japanese finance their health system and how accessible it is to everyone compared to our NHS.