The Japanese Government has a system where foreigners leaving Japan, who have been paying into the pension system, can receive back a portion of these payments. This is known as a “National Pension Payment Rebate”, or a “Lump-sum Withdrawal Payment”. After all those hard years slugging it out working in the far east, you deserve to get back as much of that money as you possible can (it’s not like you are going to retire here right?). We have provided a “Dummies Guide” to getting as many of those hard earned yen that you have paid into this country’s convoluted pension scheme put back into your pocket where they belong, this is a must read for all foreigners thinking of leaving Japan soon, or have recently left Japan.
To set the ground rules, this is only applicable to foreigners actually leaving Japan “permanently”, and is a generous loophole. It is mandatory in Japan for all those employed to make monthly pension payments, and for full-time employees of companies it is automatically deducted from monthly salaries (as opposed to contractors who are required to make the payments themselves). However, how many of us will actually be in Japan long enough to receive a pension? (Yeah.. I thought so.)
Many people have heard that this rebate may exist, but due to the difficulties of understanding the Japanese bureaucratic system, as well as language difficulties, coupled with the fact that this is not widely publicized, we at stippy.com believe that the number of people exploiting this payback system is extremely low (which is exactly how the government wants to keep it mind you).
The Main Point:
Foreigners who have made monthly pension payments can receive back a portion of these payments once they have lost the right to receive such payments, and left Japan. The application for pay-back must be made within 2 years of leaving Japan.
* Note: There are two types of pension systems- the National Pension System （国民年金） and the Employee’s (or Corporate) Pension System （厚生年金）. You can receive rebates from either of these systems, however this article will focus just on the National Pension System. Also, this rebate system does not apply to mandatory health insurance, or other social security payments.
The Conditions for Application:
- You must not be a Japanese citizen (You probably wouldn’t be reading this if you were, but anyway..)
- You must have been enrolled in and have been making pension payments for more than 6 months
- Must not have an address in Japan (“Having an address” in Japan is often important for companies and Government agencies to do business with you – See comments below)
- Must have not already received any pension payments (including disability allowance)
Payment Amounts:
If your last pension payment was made before March 2007, your rebate amount will be according to the following table (click table to see a bigger version):
However, if your last payment was April 2007 or later, things get slightly tricky and the calculation is as follows (click image to see a bigger version):
* The reason for the two different calculations is that until March 2005, mandatory National Pension payments were fixed at 13,300 yen. However from April 2005 the rates were increased, and are planned to be increased each April for the foreseeable future. The current payment amount as of October 2006 is 13,860 yen per month.
The Process and the Tricky Parts (YOU MUST KNOW THIS BEFORE LEAVING JAPAN):
- You must apply from overseas. The application form is available only at your local city/ward office (市役所, shiyakusho or 区役所, kuyakusho), or online here. It can only be filled in by the applicant. You need to submit your pension booklet (showing pension payments, or the equivalent proof of pension payment issued by your company), a copy of your passport, and bank account details with the application form.
- The National Pension payment rebate is exempt of the 20% income withholding tax which applies to the Corporate Pension systems.
- Payment is made into the bank account of your choice. This account can be in Japan, or overseas, and will be made at the exchange rate of the day of payment for overseas accounts.
Further Notes:
Having an Address: Most companies and Government agencies will not do business with you unless you have a registered address. However, this is a loose concept and can work both for and against you.
For example, Japanese securities companies won’t give you a trading account unless you have an address in Japan. If you then leave Japan, all you need then is a friend who is happy to receive mail for you.
To receive your pension rebate, as long as you don’t own property here and don’t put forward any other address, you should be fine.
Aggregated Pension Schemes: Many countries have an Aggregated Pension Scheme Agreement with Japan. This means that applications may receive two countries pensions by summing the enrollment period in each country’s National Pension Systems. Such countries currently include the US and Germany. (France, Canada and Australia are in negotiation to start up similar agreements).
However if you receive a “National Pension System payment rebate”, then you will not be eligible for this. Receiving this payment effectively nullifies your enrollment in the system.
For further details, contact your local Ward Office. And good luck!
I wonder what it means for your jyuuminzei if you didn’t hand in your gajin card. If you don’t hand it in, means you’re still registered in the ward you lived, doesn’t it? As we are supposed to pay this tax over the previous year, we still owe it over the year after we left Japan. Or over the year after you handed in your gajin card?
I was late changing addresses once (over the New Year Holidays) and was charged the full 150,000 yen for the year’s local tax. All because I thought I’d change my address come February. If you don’t turn in your alien card, expect exhorbitant taxes depending on your departure dates.
In my case, I was not able to surrender my alien card upon exit but when I have decided not to return to Japan, I have told my employer about it and so maybe they informed the local office.
Hi,
I left Japan on June 30th, 2009. I was working in Shiki from December 2007 to June 2009.
After my return, immediately i applied for Pension refund from India on July 2009 and i got confirmation that my application along with blue book had reached the pension office on July end.
Its going to over 6 months by this month end. Till now i had not received my money.
Should i call and ask for the status. Would the pension office staffs speak little english to reply me?
I applied in April and didn’t get mine until November. Some people get caught in red tape, some get their’s speedily. Yours is probably near done according to the law of averages.
Thank you Mike..for your reply. Is there any way to communicate with them in english about my pension refund status.
Not that I know of. Just go to your local Shakai Hoken Jimusho 社会保険事務所. It usually has the city (or ward in Tokyo) name before the other kanji. They may or may not have an English speaker on hand.
Hello Mike
I cant believe it…I got my pension money from japan today.
I got remiitted from US dollar to my local currency.
Thank you for all your information
Good stuff:) Don’t spend it all at once, and for goodness’ sake, don’t switch it back into yen. The yen went to dollars, then into your currency. If it went back to yen, you’d have about half of what you started with;) You can do alot with that in India, to be sure:)
I am presently in India only after my return from Japan. Thanks for all you support.
Hello,
I’m trying to fill out the form to get my pension refund, and I cannot figure out the difference between these 4 numbers. I’m guessing I don’t need the Seaman’s Insurance one, but are all the other numbers the same? Can I just fill out the “Basic Pension number” and assume they will be able to figure out the rest?
Basic Pension number
基礎年金番号
―
Employees’ Pension Insurance registration number
厚生年金保険の記号番号
―
Employees’ Pension Insurance （Seamen’s Insurance）registration number
厚生年金保険（船員保険）の記号番号
―
National Pension registration number
国民年金の記号番号
hello,
Help me
i have only Basic Pension number,
Basic Pension number
基礎年金番号
I cannot figure out these three how do i know
please help me…
Employees’ Pension Insurance registration number
厚生年金保険の記号番号
―
Employees’ Pension Insurance （Seamen’s Insurance）registration number
厚生年金保険（船員保険）の記号番号
―
※Please complete the form using the Roman alphabet.(Please print in capital letters.)Only complete the spaces in the broad-bordered boxes.
（記入はアルファベットの大文字でお願いします。） 太わく内のみ記入してください。
National Pension registration number
国民年金の記号番号
Thanks:
You only need the basic pension number.
Hello Mike,
Thanks for help.
I left Japan on Dec 7th, 2008. I was working in Saora Inc.
After my return, i did not applied for Pension refund.
can i apply now?
I am presently in India.
Hey guys, thanks for this thread, it has put me at ease.
I’ve worked in Japan for 2 years. Sent in my application in early August. Still waiting for it to arrive in my bank account. So it has been nearly 5 months so far.
Is there anything I can do to check that they’ve received the application?
Cheers.
Hello. I worked in Japan for 2 years. After I finished I applied for my pension refund (still waiting). I went home for 2 months and then cam back to Japan as a student. I got that letter in the mail telling me that my previous job has ended and to please make the payments yourself (it used to be taken out of my paycheck automatically). Do i still have to pay now that I’m a student and not employed? I would like to work in Japan again after I finish school. I taught that they would just start me up on a new pension if I become employed again.
When you came back and got your gaijin card before procuring your student visa, all of your claims to any sort of pension went down the drain.
Magnus. From what you’ve said, yours will be in your account in a couple more months. Once you’ve hit the 5-month mark, it means they’re taking you into overtime. Extra time to insure you’re not coming back to Japan right after leaving (ahole bureau-heads is why).
I got my student visa when I when back home. I used that visa to get back into Japan. Does that change anything? I then got my new gaijin card once I was back in Japan.
So I did get my student visa before my card.
Right. You’re not allowed to have a registered address in Japan before you get that pension. That was clear in the paper the Pension office gave you. (That was in the application package).
Ok, but since I moved and got a new address in a different prefecture, would they know if I was back in Japan? Also, I used my American address on the application form.
Yes.
So what do you think will happen to my pension? I left Japan on 8/2009, sent my pension app from America, came back to Japan on 10/2009 under a new address and visa. I was expecting to get my pension around 6 months later (02/2010). Would they contact me if their was a problem?
Just thought I’d add my story to the pile. I mailed off my pension refund application the first week of July ’09, international priority mail to make sure it got there quickly because I left my job in Japan in August ’07. Since then my mom has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and I plan to use the pension money to move across the country to be with her. It’s very, very hard waiting and I’m starting to lose my mind because I’ve hit the six-month mark now. And I need to be with my mom.
A friend living in Japan called the pension office with my info and they told him I would get the money “January at the earliest”. So it’s good to know they have my application, but puzzling that it is taking a minimum of six months rather than the four and a half month average.
If/when I get the money I’ll post here so that there can be another length of time example for people to see.
Student: No, they won’t contact you. If they have a question due to a problem on the original application, they might post a snail mail question (in documented bureaucratic fashion), but no, no questions. You’ve registered and address in Japan before getting your pension: no go.
Katie: I applied for mine in April and got the money in November. THERE IS NO DECIDED TIME FRAME. Don’t expect it by a certain time. But I’ve never heard of anyone having to wait more than 9 months.
I left Japan 7-18-9, filed my application 8-6-09, called yesterday to find out when I would get my payment and was notified that I would receive a letter informing me of the amount and when I would receive the money between March and April 2010. In contrast my co-worker who returned from Japan 10-08 received his payment within two months.
I read on Big Daikon that some refunds take longer because they’re trying to make sure you don’t have plans to move back into the country. When I left Japan it was kind of sudden and I didn’t get a chance to empty out/cancel my bank account. I wonder if I got some sort of red flag in their system for that. Who knows? Still waiting, but thanks Mike and Alice–I am not so freaked out about being at six months now.
Mike:
Sigh. Thanks for the reply.
Any thoughts why they take people “into overtime” in the first place? Is there some criteria?
HI,
Pls help us know how to get 20% tax back which will deduct on pension amount. Do anybody know any Tax agent in Japan?
How do I even know if I have money to claim? I worked for NOVA and Altia Central. Would these companies have contributed? If so, how would I know my pension number?
Thanks!!!
NOVA didn’t and Altia probably not, but if you don’t remember receiving anything resembling a blue bank deposit book, you’re probably not paying into it. Most English schools DO NOT have the national pension plan.
Katie, I received a letter back from Japan yesterday notifying me that my lump sum payment will be deposited on 2-15-10, maybe calling to check on the status speeds up the process? Best of luck in getting your payment soon!
Now I’m super worried because I sent mine a month before yours, Alice. Really starting to believe it will never come.
You’ve got to remember that the National Pension is a huge bureaucracy. Everyone’s comes at different times due to a million+ weird guidelines that we will never know.
Most people get theirs long after they’ve given up worrying about it. Sometimes I think the government has a worry monitor in all pensioners; “Ah, they don’t expect it anymore. Let’s shower them with more money than they thought they’d get.”
I have question. My company gave me 2 blue books ( One for me & one for my wife). Now I am in preparation to apply for lumpsum. Do I need to send 2 applications and both the pension books? (My wife didn’t work while she was in Japan). Please help me with the info.
If she didn’t pay into it (i.e. no job) then no, she need not apply for the 0yen she will get;)
Hey guys, it’s Katie again, and I have a (bad) update.
I got a letter in the mail yesterday that was from the pension agency. I was SO EXCITED–it was finally coming!! Then I opened it up and read the title of the letter: “Inadequacies in the Claim for Lump-sum Withdrawal Payment.” The letter then says this:
“You submitted to us a claim for lump-sum withdrawal pament, but we cannot proceed with its examination because there are certain inadequacies as described in the items encircled below. We return your incomplete claim to you. Please correct the inadequacies and submit a complete claim to us. Please be sure to include this document in the new file you will submit.”
Then there’s a big list and the thing that’s circled is “Attach a copy of your passport or a stamp of departure affixed when you left Japan last.”
I am angry and confused. First of all, I SENT the passport photocopy already showing my departure stamp. Why it took them EIGHT MONTHS to apparently lose it and then accuse me of not sending it is beyond me.
Second of all, I don’t understand the wording of the letter. It says I submitted an incomplete claim and that I would need to submit a “complete claim”. But they didn’t return my bank documents or my pension book (only my original application sheet), so how am I supposed to submit the “complete claim” again? Should I just mail them the passport copy and assume they have all the other documents there in a file?
Finally, there is a phone number at the bottom of the letter. It says “For inquiries from overseas, call the Social Insurance Operation Center at +81-3-6700-1165.” It doesn’t say “Japanese only”. Does this mean I can call and ask all these questions in English? I don’t have a way to make international calls right now or else I would just call it and try.
Geeze… I feel like an idiot.
I just pulled up a scan of the passport that I’d sent them, and apparently I sent them the page showing my re-entry permit and the departure stamps from trips I took while in Japan–not my final departure stamp and my 3-year visa.
This is surely what caused the delay… and it’s all my fault. 🙁 I still wish they’d mailed me a letter like this a little sooner, or even told my friend when he called back in December instead of saying I’d get my money after January.
I have to drive two hours to go back to my bank and get the certified bank stamp. I guess, to be safe, I’ll just submit everything again sans the pension book and just hope for the best.
Hi,
I’ve recieved my lump sump payment after 6 months. I found that they have deducted Tax of the tune of 20%. Is there any way by which I can try to get back portion of tax deducted after refunc processing? In the first place I did not complete the formalities outlined to save on IT deduction while leaving Japan. Is their a possible course correction now?
Thank you your reply in advance.
Blessings
Hi Burhan
Apparently it is possible.I am not sure of the procedure but it seems while claiming for the 20% tax you can designate your tax agent. May be you can ask your friend or colleague to submit the tax return along with the “Tax agent notification” form(you can send by post).
cheers
satish
Hi Satish,
Thank you for your reply. I will follow your advise and see if that works. I will post an update accordingly.
Cheers.
Burhan
If I assign my foreigner friend to be my tax agent, would it be hard for him to fill-up the tax refund form?
So, Satish you got a lump sum…that means only 3 years right? Any Canadian out there get all their pension back minus 20% national tax? Has the law changed yet to provide more nationalities with the same refund plan as Americans?
I’m Canadian and got mine after only 3 years. I think it depends on job situations, taxes owed in Japan, etc. My Kiwi mate got his after only 3 as well.
Tom
Pretty sure mine was minus 20%
So, my Canadian friend worked about 6 years for a school board in Yamanashi Ken. He asked for 3 years of his pension in cash and received it while in Yamanashi Ken. He has arranged for a local resident to apply for his 20% tax rebate and have it processed. I’m not sure yet which country or when he will receive this rebate. But he is entitled to it.
He also had the option of having the Japanese government transfer all his years of pension to the Canadian government pension program, except for the 20% Japan national tax. Again he would have to get a local to arrange this through a tax office in his home city. Apparently the government doesn’t deal with individual’s foreign banks and prefers to send refunds to the foreigner’s home government.
You might want to ask at the pension office if there is anything that could jeopardize receiving part or all of your pension. There are all kinds of rumors about this, and I worry as I just applied for unemployment insurance benefits. These are different departments. But crazy things happen here, so I want to ask myself.
By the way, I have no idea and highly doubt that getting full pension would be subject to outstanding taxes. You can always ask on http://www.gaijinpot.com.
Hi,
I applied for lumsum refund of my pension amount on April17,2010. I would like to know that when i will get my pension amount. I paid under the national employee pension scheme for the period of 2007 to 2009.
Thanks in advance.
Regards
N.Muthukumar
Anytime between this summer and next spring. There is no specifically decided time frame. So yeah, August to March. Sometime in there.
I finally got my lump sum minus tax after 6months!!
Now can anyone pls teach me how I can apply to get back my 20% that was deducted as tax?
Thank you for your reply. I will follow your advise and see if that works. I will post an update accordingly.
Cheers.