"Nenkin" (Pension) & "Hoken" (Insurance)

[woywoy 0]

If anyone is up on how much insurance and pension money we foreigners have to pay in Japan then I would love to know.

 

In my last pay (my second months pay at this new job) I had 4 per cent of my pay taken out for medical insurance ("kenko hoken") and then another 6.5 per cent taken out for my social security pension ("kosei nenkin hoken"). On top of that I had 0.7 per cent deducted for employment insurance ("koyo hoken"). This amounted to about 12 percent of my pay. On top of this I paid tax and am just wondering whether I am getting the correct treatment as a foreign worker in Japan.

 

Is paying this amount of insurance and pension money mandatory for foreigners? I am on a contract at the moment and have not received a work visa for this position.

 

If any has any more detailed info or anywhere where I can get some then please let me know.

[montoya 0]

Not sure how applicable it is to you, but some years back at a Japanese company, was in a similar situation as you (big chunks taken out for nenkin, etc). The 2nd year there, I told them I didn't want to pay nenkin, so they changed my contract from regular shain to some special type of keiyaku-shain (or part-time arubaito? I can't remember), and they were able to avoid the nenkin stuff.

 

Worked same hours doing same work, but just with a differently-worded contract.

[woywoy 0]

The thing is I'm not a seishain, permanent employee, but a normal keiyaku-shain, or contract worker. I don't want to be paying this nenkin as it stops me from saving as much as I would like to be saving. I will definitely not be living my whole life in japan and think that it would be much more benficial to be sending money home that I can actually access when I want to.

 

Any more info would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers

[grungy-gonads 54]

If youre not part of the company nenkin, you're supposed to (by law I am sure) pay the 13300 yen per month national pension.

[damian 0]

I did the calculation on this forum about 12 months ago and have since forgotten the equation, however when you leave this great country you get to claim back quite a large amount of your pension contributions. How much you get is a function of how much you earn and how many years you lived in Japan.

 

From memory it was optimal to leave after 2 years.

 

Funny how 2 years is also the most that any capable, real-world-loving person would want to stay in Japan (sorry, it slipped out, just joking around).

[damian 0]

light reading, my calculation is near the bottom of the page.

[woywoy 0]

I have heard from a mate that if you choose to pay "kokumin kenkou hoken", National health insurance, instead of "Shakai hoken", Social insurance, you dont have to pay the nenkin.

 

I just asked one of the accounting people at work and was told that it depends on the company you work for if you can do this or not. She told me that I would be a "burden on the company if I didnt pay the health insurance and then got sick!" How true is this?

 

I was not given a straight answer as to how much of this damn nenkin I would get back when I finally leave Japan as well. Very frustrating ...

[mogski 0]

Nenkin repayments go like this:

 

You pay in many many many many years worth of your yens.

 

When you leave Japan, only very very very very very few of your paid many many many many yens returns to your wanting pocket.

 

Basically they cahnged the law a few back regarding the repayments for foreginers. Regardless of how many years you paid in the repayment calculation is capped at 36 months worth of payments. Of this I beleive your are entitled to the equivalent of some calculation that takes your last monthly salary and divides by this number and times by three. That is what I think you get back. Of this returned nenkin you must pay 20% in income taxes to J-govt. If you appoint a tax representative you can claim this back (but they do take a fee).

 

I too am stuck with paying it and in a company where fluidity and move with the times and changes for the better and loyalty to our employess does not appear in the company dictionary. I worked out from my independent research that the best way to get the most out of this shceme is to render your alien card to customs, leave the country, make the application to receive your payment, receive payment then come back to J-land again and start from sctract again.

 

According to this s-hole that I call work if you receive in Yen's as a company they must charge you for this compulsory stuff.

 

I really really feel for you there woywoy but unless we foreigner revolt against the J-govt. there doesn't look to be much you can do about it except to perhaps ask your company to offset the payments, by way of reimbursement at the end of the year.