Japanese National Pension System

English／英語[一般用](5) Your public pension contributions are subject to tax deduction as “social insurance contribution”.

All people aged 20-59, regardless of nationality or length of stay, who have registered address in Japan must be coveredby the National Pension system, which is a Japanese public pension system, and must pay contributions by law.
If you have financial difficulty in contribution payments, however, you may apply for contribution exemption system or
payment postponement system for each year. We examine your application, mainly your past income in Japan. If youare qualified, exemption/postponement is granted.
By taking this procedure, you establish valid coverage periods to be included in the requirement to receive future
old age pension as well as today’s disability pension in case you accidentally get injured and suffer from disability.
(1) Application for full or partial exemption from contribution payments
You may apply for full or partial exemption for a particular year when each income of you, your spouse (including one
not living with you) or household head in the previous year(s) is lower than a certain amount, or if any of you are
unemployed. If you are examined to be qualified, the exemption is granted. (Please note that the partial exemption
requires you to pay remaining contribution amount; if you fail to pay the remaining amount, the partial exemption
period will no longer be valid and result in as non-payment period.)(2) Application for postponement of contribution payments
You may apply to postpone your payments if you are younger than 50 years (except students) and each income ofyou or your spouse in the previous year is lower than a certain amount. If you are examined to be qualified, thepostponement is granted.

2. Monthly Contributions

NOTES ON APPLICATION

1. Important Points of the Japanese Public Pension System: National Pension System(1) All people who are registered to reside in Japan and aged between 20 and 59, irrespective of theirnationality, must be covered by the National Pension system and pay contributions by law.
(2) The public pension systems (including the National Pension system) are designed with a financial
intergenerational support mechanism.
(3) The public pension systems pay not only the old-age pension, but also the disability pension and thesurvivors’ pension when you have unexpected financial difficulties.
(4) The Japanese government subsidizes part of the pension benefits fund.

The contribution amount for the National Pension is ¥16,980 per month from April 2024 to March 2025.
You can pay your contributions in cash at banks and other financial institutions, post offices, andconvenience stores. You can also pay it using automatic bank transmission, the Internet payments or bycredit card.
3.

National Pension Benefits(1) Old-age Basic Pension
If you have paid the National Pension contributions for at least 10 years and meet the requirements, theOld-age Basic Pension is paid to you when you become 65 years old.
(2) Disability Basic Pension
The Disability Basic Pension is paid to you if you become sick or get injured while you are covered by
the National Pension system and the sickness or injury eventually causes such disability as specified
as the Grade 1 or Grade 2 disability.
(3) Survivors’ Basic Pension
When an insured person of the National Pension system dies, the Survivors’ Basic Pension is paid tohis/her dependent spouse taking care of child(ren) or to his/her dependent child(ren).

For more details, please contact JPS Branch Office or National Pension section of your residential
municipal office.
Visit JPS website at https://www.nenkin.go.jp/international/index.html
Japan Pension ServiceClick
For general inquiries about pension coverage, please call us at;“Nenkin Kanyusha Dial”
0570‐003‐004 (local discount rate)
If your phone number starts with 050 please call; 03-6630-2525 (regular rate)
Service hours: 8:30 – 19:00, Monday – Friday
9:30 – 16:00 for second Saturday of a month
Out of service on holidays (other than second Saturday of a month), from 29 December to 3 January2407 1016 014

4Application for National Pension Contribution Exemption / Payment Postponement● Application year
- An applicable one year for exemption or postponement starts in July and ends in next June.
- If you want exemption or postponement to be granted continuously for the following year, basically you need to fileapplication every July.
● Application for past year and current year
- For past years: You can apply for exemption or postponement for the past period retroactively for up to 25 months
from the date when you file the application (if you already paid contributions for certain month(s) during the 25 months,
the paid contribution however, will not be exempted/reimbursed).
- For current year: When you apply for exemption or postponement for current year, it covers until next June, i.e., if
you file the application between January and June, the application covers until June of the same year.
One application covers 12 months from July to next June. If you want to apply for exemption for longer period, youneed to file more than one application.
Note: You can file application retroactively to cover past 25 months at the longest from the application date. We
advise you to file application as early as possible in order to establish past insurance period to be valid. If yourapplication is delayed, it may be possible that it will disqualify you from receiving disability pension.
● Documents we needIf you apply for exemption because of your unemployment, bankruptcy or termination of business, please provide
related evidence documents including photocopy of either your certificate of employment insurance benefits“KOYOHOKEN JUKYU SHIKAKUSHA SHO” or your resignation slip for insured persons under the employment
insurance “KOYOHOKEN HIHOKENSHA RISHOKUHYO”. For details about documents, please contact yourresidential municipal office or JPS Branch Office.
●Documents we need if you file application using your “My Number”- If you file the application at our office, please present your My Number card. If you don’t have the card, pleasepresent one document each in (1) and (2) below;- If you mail the application to our office by post, please enclose photocopy of both sides of your My Number card. If
you don’t have the card, please enclose photocopy of one document each in (1) and (2) below;(1) Certified copy of your resident registry showing your My Number, or your My Number notification letter (if nameand address are identical as recorded on the resident registry), as proof of the authenticity of your My Number(2) Your driver’s license, or passport, or residence card, or any equivalent document, to identify yourself as the true
owner of the number

WHERE TO FILE THE APPLICATION
Please file your completed application at your residential municipal office or JPS Brach Office. You may mail yourapplication to the offices by post.
For details, please contact your residential municipal office or JPS Branch Office.
See following page in order to fill in the application form.

1How to fill in the form
SamplePlease carefully read this in order to fill out the Application form for National Pension Contribution Exemption / Payment Postponement. Follow thesample entry in red ink to enter specific information in the form, either in Japanese language, English alphabets or numbers (A,B,C,..1,2,3,…). Please
note that if the application is incomplete or missing needed data, we need to return your application and ask you to enter data in Japanese, which may
cause delay in application processing.

Enter date (yyyy/mm/dd) of application, your address as of theapplication date, your name in English alphabets as shown on yourpassport.

In the first section of the form, you as the insured person and applicant, state thatyou are applying for exemption or postponement. You also declare here that
information about you, your spouse and head of your household is complete andcorrect. Then you approve and entrust the Japan Pension Service (JPS) andmunicipal offices to share personal information including income, which arenecessary to examine your application.

Enter your 12 digit “My Number” (your Individual Number in Japan)
or 10 digit Basic Pension Number in ① . (For Basic Pension
Number, please enter the number aligning to the left.)
Enter your name in ③, your spouse’s name in ⑤, and name ofhead of household* in ⑦ if different person than the two above.
（ Enter current information if you are applying for exemption /postponement for current year. For application for past year, enter
these information as of the final date of the application year, e.g., if
you are applying for exemption for 2023, enter each name as ofJune 30, 2024.）* Head of your household (usually means the main wage earner of afamily) is registered on your Japanese Resident Registry “JUMINHYO”.

This is a form to apply for NP contribution exemption / postponement.

2024

71

Your address
1234567

Tokyo-To, Suginami-Ku, Takaido Nishi, 1-2-3Your nameJOHN SMITH
Your phone numberX

X XXXX

X X

X X080of household had any dependent family members aged between 16 18, as of December 31 of the previous year to the application year.

JANE

81 0

1990

SMITH

Birth date of your spouse

Name of your spouseIn ⑪ please enter about your dependent if you, your spouse, or head

XXXXYour date of birthYour name

JOHN

XXXX

SMITH

1990

1 0

Name of head of household

JAMES

SMITH

There are three lines: first line is about you, second line for yourspouse, third for head of household.
For example, if head of your household had one dependent familymember, circle head of the third line and circle “あり” (yes) and enter 1

John Smith, U.S.A.

John Smith moved from the U.S.A. on 2024/11/1
XXXXXXXXin ( ) on the right.

Basically you need to file an application every July if you want
exemption or postponement continuously. However, in order toallow us to prepare for next year for you, please indicate your option
in ⑬.
1. If you are granted the full-exemption or postponement this timeand if we find you will be still qualified next year, would you want
to apply for continuous full-exemption or postponement? If NOT,please circle 希望しません in the box on the right.
2. Also, if you are granted postponement this year and if we findyou will be eligible for full-exemption next year, would you rather
want to apply for full-exemption in the next year? If NOT, pleasecircle 希望しません in the box on the right.
For details, please contact JPS Branch Office or your residential
municipal office.

2XXXX

1

Enter your telephone number in ②. Circle applicable phone type;
1. for home phone, 2. for mobile, 3. for workplace phone, 4. for otherphones.
Enter your date of birth (yyyy/mm/dd) in ④ and enter yourspouse’s date of birth in ⑥.
If you, your spouse or head of household resided outside of Japanas of January 1 of the application year, please indicate name ofcountry in ⑧ . (For example, if you live in Japan as of theapplication date (July 1, 2024), filing an application for 2024 andyou lived in the U.S.A. as of January 1, 2024, please enter yourname and “U.S.A.”)
Enter your spouse’s 12 digit My Number in ( ) if your spouseresides in other address in Japan as of application date (as of June
30, final date of the application year, if applying for the past year).
If you, your spouse, or head of household moved from/to overseas
during the application year in ⑩, enter the relevant name, date andcountry in ⑧. (For example, if you moved to Japan from the U.S.A.
on November 1, 2024, please enter “(your name) moved from theU.S.A. on 2024/11/1”.)
Enter the year (four digits) for which you want exemption orpostponement to be granted in ⑩. One application year covers
from July to next June. For example, the application year 2024
covers from July 2024 to June 2025.
You can apply for past period retroactively for up to 25 months fromthe application date. However, if you already paid contribution forsome months during the 25 months, the paid contribution will not
be exempted/reimbursed.

Year for application

2024

If you apply for exemption because you, your spouse or head ofhousehold became unemployed e.g., resigned a company, please

12024

4

1

enter the date (yyyy/mm/dd) of following day of resignation, i.e., firstdate of unemployment in ⑫. Enter your information in the first line,
your spouse’s on the second line, and head of household’s in thethird line. If any of you were covered by the employment insurance
before resignation, circle “あり” (yes) shown on right side of arrow
mark ⇒ and submit evidence document to prove the insurance
coverage. (See page 1 for specific documents)

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