RetireJapan

So I'm currently living in Japan and have been for five years now.

I've only just caught on to the fact that paying pension here is compulsory and intend to enroll on Monday.
I suspect they will request the two years back payment from me which I will try to compromise with them/compensate them with.
However, I do have a few questions as I don't fully understand everything.

The long and short of it is I haven't decided if I'm going to stay in Japan or return to England yet.

I have heard that any pension paid in Japan doesn't fully transfer over as it does with some other countries like the USA.
I just wanted to confirm that it's possible to get at least some of my Japan pension back if I do decide to return to England.
I have looked at the nenkin website but it doesn't really explain things in lamens and I'm a simple person.

If I do decide to return to England, how does it work?
If I decide to stay in Japan, I'm only eligible for pension after 10 years right? Does that mean I'll get my pension at retirement age or does that mean I can get the 10 years I've paid in at any time after 10 years.

Lots of questions, I know. Any knowledge would be appreciated.

Welcome to the forum!

Away from computer so I'll be brief

If you leave Japan before paying 120 months you can get a refund of up to 3 years' worth.

If you pay 120 months you'll get a pension when you reach retirement age.

My understanding is that, if you have 120 months of contributions, you will be eligible for a monthly pension from retirement age regardless of where you are living at at the time.

Does anyone know if the Japan Pension Service can pay that income into a foreign bank account (e.g. a U.K. bank) or do they insist on payment into a Japanese bank account (which might be difficult to keep open and manage if you are no longer resident in Japan)? I wonder how easy it is to submit the required documents from overseas? I suspect a lot of people don’t know about/don’t bother claiming their Japanese pensions if they don’t live in Japan when they reach retirement age.

Incidentally, claiming the U.K. state pension from Japan seems to be relatively straightforward. Does anyone have experience of actually doing this? They do mention that they can pay into overseas accounts but I’d be worried about fees being charged by intermediary and recepient banks. (Am planning to start a new thread on this in the near future).

The pension office told me that they can pay anywhere in the world and are not limited to Japanese banks.

TokyoWart wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2019 5:11 am The pension office told me that they can pay anywhere in the world and are not limited to Japanese banks.

Yeah, but how do they do it? Maybe they just send Yen and don’t care about the charges/costs involved to the recipient.

ricardo wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2019 1:16 pm Maybe they just send Yen and don’t care about the charges/costs involved to the recipient.

That sounds very likely. Not sure why it would be expected that they bear the transaction/forex costs on your behalf.

StockBeard wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2019 9:16 am

ricardo wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2019 1:16 pm Maybe they just send Yen and don’t care about the charges/costs involved to the recipient.

That sounds very likely. Not sure why it would be expected that they bear the transaction/forex costs on your behalf.

Agreed, but my point is that receiving money from Japan - in Yen - in a foreign bank account could bear charges which would significantly impact on the actual amount received. If the recepient bank charges a fixed fee of - say $20 - then this could, every month, be a big issue.

True. Maybe they'd have ways to send a lump sump yearly instead of monthly...

I believe the Japanese pension is paid every two months, which would help somewhat...

Thank you for the information guys.