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Annuity programs (National Pension Plan and Welfare Annuity Insurance)
- All persons from the ages of 20 to 60, including foreign persons living in Japan are required to join one of the available national pension programs. These pension programs are pension systems that are operated by the national government and are aimed at supporting the daily life of the insured in a case where the insured becomes too old to work, or becomes incapacitated from illness or injury, or for support of the insured's family if the insured passes away.
- National Pension Plan
- Persons who are self-employed, or who are employed in farming or fishing, or students, etc. (persons who are not employed by companies) pay the insurance premiums to the ward, city, town or village where they reside. Procedures to receive coverage are carried out at the section in charge in the ward, city, town or village where you reside.
- Welfare Annuity Insurance
- For persons 65 years or younger employed by a company that qualifies for this program, regardless of nationality, position or sex, are expected to join this Welfare Annuity Insurance program.
When applying for coverage, the employer of the insured carries out the necessary procedures and pays the monthly insurance premiums and they are subtracted from the monthly earnings of the insured.
In addition, the dependents of the insured (mainly the insured's wife, an
unemployed housewife) become an insured and are covered by the premiums that the husband pays.
- Issuance of Welfare Annuity Insurance personal register (booklet)
- A Welfare Annuity Insurance personal register (booklet) is issued to all insureds. In this personal register (booklet) is recorded the insured's name and date of birth and various symbols and numbers and also the date when the insured became a member of the program. The various symbols and numbers remain unchanged throughout the life of the insured whether his address and/or his employer change or not.
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| Paying National Pension Plan premiums |
If you enter the National Pension Plan system, payment of premiums will begin. The monthly premium is as shown below:
From April 1999: 13,300 yen.
The method of paying the monthly premiums is to use the payment forms that will be sent to you from your local city, ward, town or village government office in the area where you live, and within the required payment period, make the payment at a bank, an agricultural cooperative, post office or other financial institution. In addition, in order to avoid forgetting to make payments, it is recommended that you arrange with the financial institution where you have an account for automatic withdrawal from your account. Please make such arrangements at the time when you enter the plan. |
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- Benefits
- As a basic rule, if the insured has paid premiums into the program for 25 years, when he becomes 65, the program he is entitled to receive old age pension payments. In addition, if he is disabled because of illness or injuries and the specific characteristics of his condition meet certain qualifications, the plan will pay him disability payments and will pay monthly support benefits to his surviving family (including wife and children) if he becomes deceased.
In addition, it is possible to receive benefits from the plan whether the insured is living in Japan or not and it is possible to have the payments remitted to
destinations outside of Japan.
- One-time lump sum benefit payments when leaving the plan
- In the case of insured persons who are foreign nationals, there are cases where the period of residence is short and they return to their own countries before being able to receive benefits. Therefore, if such individuals have paid premiums into the plan for 6 months or more and meet certain other qualifications, if they complete the necessary procedures within two years after they leave Japan, the plan includes a system for paying them a one-time lump sum benefits payment.
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| Applying for coverage under the National Pension Plan system |
Please ask at your local ward, city, town or village office for information on the following items:
- Have you completed the necessary procedures for alien registration? If not, please come again when you have completed your alien registration procedures.
- Did you complete your alien resident registration in this ward, city, town or village or not?
If not, please complete registering as a foreign resident of the area in order to the procedures receive coverage under the National Pension Plan at the government office where you applied for you alien registration.
- Please check the following items on your alien registration card: registration number, date of birth, nationality, original date of entry into Japan.
- Please pronounce your name slowly and clearly. If you also have a nickname, please state that name.
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