Readers of me know that I have been discussing Japan National Pension since the late 2000s/early 2010s.
I am sure I recounted my story about how I knew about the US-Japan Totalization Agreement when I first showed in Japan in 2005. So when I finally got my resident’s card later that year, I went down to Koto Ward and signed up. I remember the guy at the ward desk was fumbling and hesitating, and mentioned something about having to pay for so many years, etc.
But I had no problem with it. Because I knew about the totalization. I started working early (15), and even though I went to college and grad school, I still had maybe 23 years into Social Security by that time. So, for me, I would be at the (then required) 25-year mark within a year or two. Maybe this was 2007.
In fact, I would qualify for the check sooner than a Japanese person my age, who would qualify at the earliest when he/she/they/kare turned 45.
I am also rare, in that I think I am one of the few foreigners who has hit the “quadfecta” of having been part of, at one point or another, kokumin nenkin, kosei nenkin, kosei nenkin kikin, and kokumin nenkin kikin.
I am currently in the kokumin nenkin kikin, called in English the National Pension Fund.
My guess is there are no more than 150 Americans, not including “hidden Christian” Japanese who were born in America, who are in the Fund.
I was surprised to read that premiums for the Fund are going to rise for those joining April or later. This is because the Fund actuaries calculate that people will be living longer. I knew that they do a five-year review, but I expected premiums to go down in anticipation of rate-normalization by the Japan central bank.
Since it is a public fund, there is no profit incentive, except where there are payments to fund managers (the big you-know-who ones that make the headlines). Fund administrative expenses keep getting chopped down through consolidation. I think the whole thing is run out of Akasaka now, near the post office on Aoyama Doori.
It will be interesting to see what the new prices are, and I wonder if they will affect anyone who is continuing to join at age 60.
Hoofin 