My contract ended with my previous company and I chose to not renew it and I started a new job after about 2 months. During the 2 month break, I had to keep paying health insurance as its illegal to not do so in Japan, so I went to my new city’s ward office and the most important document required is the Certificate of Loss of Health Insurance from my previous company, as proof that I am indeed no longer on company insurance. I asked the previous company for this 2 months ago and they still haven’t sent it, they either ignore my emails or when I call, they tell me that there are still working on it. My issue is I keep receiving reminders from the ward office about why I haven’t gotten the health insurance yet (for those 2 months, despite now being on my new company’s shakai hoken) and I’ve been there twice now telling them my previous company isn’t giving me the certificate. The ward office tried calling the company directly in front of me which I suggested and the person who picked up the phone said “the person in charge” wasn’t there, which I honestly think was false because it’s such a big nation wide company. I am really worried because I heard it is illegal to not have insurance in Japan and even though I’m not at fault, this prev. company I was working for is pretty huge and I’m afraid they might blame me for something if push comes to shove. I really don’t understand what’s hard about obtaining the certificate? Has anyone been through this? What consequences are there for this? Can I get deported for this if prev. company takes too long? What next steps can I take?
