Karakikan for a permanent resident

[regular]

I was a graduate student in Japan for four years in early ninety's, when I was in my twenty's and was not required to pay into the pension system. My annual teikibin now shows all the months I have contributed since I was on a salary. However, I have read that permanent residents (which I am now but was not then) can claim the years they were not required to pay into the pension system to be marked as Karakikan which may help in some contexts.

When I called the pension office, they flatly told me that Karakikan does not exist.

Has anyone been successful in incorporating karakikan into their pension contribution record?

[RetireJapan]

Interesting! I'd heard it was a thing, but never got round to checking officially...

Anyone else?

[ricardo]

I’d heard that it means if you have PR you can get a pension with what in those days was less than 25 years payments (reduced price-rata, of course, for the amount you actually paid in).

Now that the qualifying period is 10 years I don’t know if this still applies.

[Stewart]

A while back, before they lowered the minimum period to 10 years to get a pension, I wrote and got a reply to the issue of karakikan. The letter states that the empty period counts for the length of time to qualify for a pension if that person was out of the country - this applies to both foreigners and Japanese. However, it does not count towards the amount of money that is paid for the pension - that will be in direct proportion to how much you actually paid in. I've not used this and won't have to as I will have 15 years in the Japanese system.

However, the first person we asked denied that karakikan existed but we pushed back as we knew the law and were advised to write in to get a more considered response than from the trainee on the counter that day we went in.

[RetireJapan]

I wonder if the rules on karakikan have changed now that the minimum period to vest is only ten years. It certainly seems less useful now, although if you were a year or two short it would be better than nothing!

[jane doe]

I got it registered anyway, in case the goalposts move back again in the future (unlikely, but who knows). I had a total of 206 months registered, as I arrived in Japan age 37. I also have well over 10 years' contributions, but it wasn't that hard to do. I went to my local pension office and found out what the procedure was. It involved taking all my old passports to the Ministry of Exterior, completing an application and waiting to get sent the certificate, which I then presented with my application at my local pension office. My advice, go to one where they are more helpful (might not be the most local one), and ask for phone interpretation in English if you need it. I found it helpful to try and wrap my head around the most complex things, and now feel like I understand a bit better how it works.
You are right that only permanent residents qualify to claim it (not people on fixed term visas). It won't affect your payments, just counts towards eligibility, so you are already over the 10 year mark, you may decide it doesn't make any difference.