Do foreign governments help frozen pensioners?

[niall24]

I was *really* frozen a few times (after swimming in Hayama in January), and my government did diddly squat, didnt even send me a down coat! After that I decided to buy my own winter clothes.

[Tkydon]

How does pension totalisation work in practice? Say I have full contributions for the UK and 15 or so years kokumin nenkin here (yes, ok, this will be my actual situation). Does some of it get disregarded somehow?

There are certain countries - the US - that have an Anti-Double Dipping clause, Social Security is reduced if receiving other pensions, but in the most cases you simply get paid based on the contributions made to each country's system, either separately by applying to each country, or through the Pension System in the country of residence, who will make the ongoing application(s) on your behalf under the Totalization Agreement.

Even if you haven't paid in the minimum contributions to qualify for a pension in the country, if you have qualifying periods in a Totalization Agreement country, then they can be used to get you over the qualification hurdle, though benefits will still be paid based on actual contribution in that country.

Japanese Nationals (and I just found out, German Citizens who lived in Japan for more than 5 years) are entitled to pay Voluntary Contributions to the Japanese National Pension System from overseas, similar Voluntary Contributions to the UK Pension, increasing their Japan National Pension Benefits. As far as I can discern, this is only available to German Citizens.


Germans leaving Japan - You can still make contributions to the Japanese National Pension from abroad if you wish!
https://www.nenkin.go.jp/international/ ... rmany.html

"4. Voluntary enrollment in the pension system of the other country
..., any German nationals who have made valid contribution to the Japanese pension system for at least 5 years can also voluntarily enroll in the Japanese National Pension system after they return to Germany. In this case, the 5 years coverage in Japan includes the period under the National Pension (excluding the contribution-exempted period), the Employees' Pension Insurance and the Mutual Aid Pension systems.
If you wish to voluntarily enroll in the other country's pension system, you can submit the application to the social security authority of either country."

[Beaglehound]

Thanks Tkydon, so in most cases no detriment is what I take from that. Don't think I will waste time worrying about it. Have enough trouble worrying about being frozen up here in Hida

[salyavin]

How does pension totalisation work in practice? Say I have full contributions for the UK and 15 or so years kokumin nenkin here (yes, ok, this will be my actual situation). Does some of it get disregarded somehow?

There are certain countries - the US - that have an Anti-Double Dipping clause, Social Security is reduced if receiving other pensions, but in the most cases you simply get paid based on the contributions made to each country's system, either separately by applying to each country, or through the Pension System in the country of residence, who will make the ongoing application(s) on your behalf under the Totalization Agreement.

This just changed this week! You will see many news stories about it for example https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-sec ... te-passed/

[captainspoke]

...
This just changed this week! You will see many news stories about it for example https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-sec ... te-passed/

Some discussion of this over on JapanFinance: https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/c ... repealing/

[IloveJapan]

I am so happy to read the CBS article. It is really heartwarming that an outgoing president would do the right thing in the process of departing from office.

People who have been contributing in good faith to a public pension all their lives must receive what they could reasonably expect to get from the government.

These people have high level skills that they have used for their country and deserve this good Christmas news!