This is not a post about the lump sum withdrawal.
I will be leaving Japan this year. I will be gone for 2-3 years. I will not have residency. I do not have PR.
Earlier this year, I paid into the National Pension via the convenience store with one of those pension bills that lets you pay a bunch at once, rather than month by month.
As a result, I have technically overpaid by 3-4 months (I won’t be living in the country for those months).
The Pension Office said they will send a refund form for those 3-4 months to my Japanese address when they get confirmation from the city hall that I am no longer a resident. When I told them I wouldn’t be able to receive it (since I won’t be living in the country), they told me to set up a forwarding address to a friend’s house. However, checking with the post office, they said that forwarding to an address in which I do not live in is not allowed.
I explained this to the Pension Office. They said they would send the form to my Japanese address anyway, despite me not living there.
They also said I cannot fill out the forms or assign a proxy at the Pension Office before I leave. They said I would have to wait until January (which is after I have left).
They said that once the form arrives in the mailbox, I will have 2 years to fill out the form and collect the money, or else they will eat the money. The only exception would be that if I can put a stop to the mail arriving, and have it sent back. Then, I’ll have 4 years to collect (this would be fine, assuming I do return in 2-3 years).
Has anybody ever experienced or heard of anything like this? Can anybody think of any other course of action I could take?
The only thing I can think of would be to ask my land lord to keep an eye out for the letter and remove it from the mailbox and have them send it to be overseas.