Just some background: Currently on day 3 of my 1 year stay in Nagakute City, Aichi. I have a cultural visa and am a visiting researcher at Aichi Medical University Hospital (without pay the entire year).
It has been really rough, but my problem is that once i applied my address at city hall for the resident card, they’re requiring me to pay health insurance and the national pension. I’ve no problem paying health insurance (2 to 3k yen a month), but the national pension is around 16-17k a month. I’m already paying a LOT for the apartment and honestly can’t afford additional charges.
Since i’m not a citizen, going to retire here nor stay beyond a year, is it really advised to pay the national pension? Is there a way out of it?
A friend of mine in tokyo, also doing the same thing, said he’s just ignoring it. Not sure if that’s okay since I do have plans of going back here for vacation someday.
Thank you for your input!
3 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Moving in Aichi Prefecture. Pension Problems**
Just some background: Currently on day 3 of my 1 year stay in Nagakute City, Aichi. I have a cultural visa and am a visiting researcher at Aichi Medical University Hospital (without pay the entire year).
It has been really rough, but my problem is that once i applied my address at city hall for the resident card, they’re requiring me to pay health insurance and the national pension. I’ve no problem paying health insurance (2 to 3k yen a month), but the national pension is around 16-17k a month. I’m already paying a LOT for the apartment and honestly can’t afford additional charges.
Since i’m not a citizen, going to retire here nor stay beyond a year, is it really advised to pay the national pension? Is there a way out of it?
A friend of mine in tokyo, also doing the same thing, said he’s just ignoring it. Not sure if that’s okay since I do have plans of going back here for vacation someday.
Thank you for your input!
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>Since i’m not a citizen, going to retire here nor stay beyond a year, is it really advised to pay the national pension? Is there a way out of it?
You are *legally obligated* to pay into the pension. If it’s a financial hardship you can ***maybe*** apply for an exemption/discount. You can also apply for a refund when you leave Japan and you’ll get 80%-ish back.
>A friend of mine in tokyo, also doing the same thing, said he’s just ignoring it.
Your friend is giving you bad advice and is setting himself up for major problems. “I didn’t pay into pension and now they’ve sent me a bill for 3 years all at once” is so common it’s basically a meme.
Honestly, from what I’ve seen in similar situations it is almost certain you would be granted an exemption for the pension, as long as you actually go and take care of things.