Defined Contribution Pension Act

• The employer pays contributions (事業主掛金) at least once a year, in an amount the plan's rules set as a fixed sum, a fixed share of pay or by a similar method. Where the rules allow it, a participant may add contributions of their own (企業型年金加入者掛金), in an amount they decide, paid through the employer, which may deduct them from pay and must tell the participant the amount deducted. A participant's contributions for a year, the employer's and their own together, may not exceed a limit a Cabinet Order (政令) sets, taking account of whether the participant is also in a defined benefit corporate pension plan and other factors.(Art. 19(1), Art. 19(2), Art. 4(1)(iii), Art. 19(3), Art. 19(4), Art. 21-2(1), Art. 21-3(1), Art. 21-3(2), Art. 20(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• These people may join the individual-type pension plan by applying to the National Pension Fund Association (国民年金基金連合会), which runs it: category 1 insured persons (第1号被保険者) of the National Pension, unless excused from contributions because they receive livelihood assistance (生活扶助) or under an exemption they applied for, the student exemption included — an exemption for another reason, such as receiving a disability basic pension, does not bar them; category 2 insured persons (第2号被保険者) — those insured under Employees' Pension Insurance — unless they pay their own contributions into a corporate-type plan or are among others a Cabinet Order names; category 3 insured persons (第3号被保険者); and voluntary insured persons (任意加入被保険者) who live in Japan and are 60 to 64, or who are Japanese nationals or others a Cabinet Order names, live abroad and are 20 to 64. No one can join who has, or has had, the right to the individual-type plan's old-age benefit, or who has the right to an old-age or retirement pension a Cabinet Order names, such as the old-age pensions of the National Pension Act (国民年金法) and the Employees' Pension Insurance Act (厚生年金保険法).This is the rule until 30 November 2026.(Art. 2(5), Art. 62(1), Art. 62(1)(i), Art. 62(1)(ii), Art. 62(1)(iii), Art. 62(1)(iv), Art. 62(2), National Pension Act Art. 7(1), National Pension Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 5(1), National Pension Act Art. 89(1), National Pension Act Art. 90(1), National Pension Act Art. 90-2(1), National Pension Act Art. 90-3(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• These people may join the individual-type pension plan by applying to the National Pension Fund Association (国民年金基金連合会), which runs it: four groups of people insured under the National Pension — category 1 insured persons unless excused from contributions because they receive livelihood assistance (生活扶助) or under an exemption they applied for, the student exemption included; category 2 unless they pay their own contributions into a corporate-type plan or are among others a Cabinet Order names; category 3; and voluntary insured persons other than those aged 20 to 59 living in Japan who can receive an old-age benefit of Employees' Pension Insurance — and a fifth group, people aged 60 to 69 in none of those four who, unless they pay their own contributions into a corporate-type plan or are among others a Cabinet Order names, were in the plan the day before they apply, as a participant or as an instructor of an individual-type pension plan investment (個人型年金運用指図者), ask to move their corporate-type plan assets into it, or are about to ask to move into it a lump-sum equivalent, residual assets or reserve under the Defined-Benefit Corporate Pension Act (確定給付企業年金法), which a separate Act governs. No one can join who has, or has had, the right to the individual-type plan's old-age benefit, or whose right to the old-age basic pension (老齢基礎年金) under the National Pension Act has been awarded (裁定); every fifth-group participant (第5号加入者) leaves the plan at 70, and one who joined to move such money in but does not ask within a period a Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Order (厚生労働省令) sets is treated as never having joined. For three years from the day this rule begins, people aged 60 to 69 with an address (住所) in Japan who do not pay their own contributions into a corporate-type plan and are not among others a Cabinet Order names may also join as part of the fifth group if, on that day, they were in none of the four groups and had at some time been insured under the National Pension, or if within a year of that day they stop being in any of the four.This is the rule from 1 December 2026.(Art. 2(5), Art. 62(1), Art. 62(1)(i), Art. 62(1)(ii), Art. 62(1)(iii), Art. 62(1)(iv), Art. 62(1)(v), Art. 62(2), Art. 62(4)(iii), Art. 62(4)(viii), Art. 62(5), Suppl. Prov. Art. 33(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 33(1)(i), Suppl. Prov. Art. 33(1)(ii), National Pension Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 5(1), National Pension Act Art. 89(1), National Pension Act Art. 90(1), National Pension Act Art. 90-2(1), National Pension Act Art. 90-3(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• An individual-type participant stops being one when, among other things, they stop being insured under the National Pension, become excused from contributions in a way that bars joining (above), become insured under the Farmers' Pension (農業者年金), start paying their own contributions into a corporate-type plan, or become entitled to the plan's old-age benefit or to an old-age pension that bars joining. One who still has assets in the plan then becomes an instructor of an individual-type pension plan investment, as any participant with assets may also become on request to the Association.This is the rule until 30 November 2026.(Art. 62(4), Art. 62(4)(ii), Art. 62(4)(iv), Art. 62(4)(v), Art. 62(4)(vi), Art. 62(4)(vii), Art. 62(4)(viii), Art. 64(1), Art. 64(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• An individual-type participant stops being one when, among other things, they stop being insured under the National Pension (unless they are a fifth-group participant), become excused from contributions in a way that bars joining (above), become insured under the Farmers' Pension (農業者年金), start paying their own contributions into a corporate-type plan, become entitled to the plan's old-age benefit, or have their right to the old-age basic pension awarded; a fifth-group participant also leaves at 70. One who still has assets in the plan then becomes an instructor of an individual-type pension plan investment, as any participant with assets may also become on request to the Association.This is the rule from 1 December 2026.(Art. 62(4), Art. 62(4)(ii), Art. 62(4)(iii), Art. 62(4)(v), Art. 62(4)(vi), Art. 62(4)(vii), Art. 62(4)(ix), Art. 62(4)(x), Art. 64(1), Art. 64(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• An individual-type participant pays contributions to the Association at least once a year, in an amount they decide and may change under the plan's rules. A participant who is a category 2 insured person may pay through their employer, which may not refuse without good reason and may deduct the contribution from pay; a small and medium-sized employer (中小事業主) — one with no corporate-type or defined benefit plan and 300 or fewer category I insured employees — may add contributions of its own for its category I insured employees who pay that way, with the consent of the union of a majority of all its category I insured employees other than those Article 62, paragraph (2) bars from the individual-type plan or, where there is none, of a person representing that majority, and may, with the same consent, limit them to employees meeting a qualification that does not discriminate unfairly. A year's contributions, any employer's included, may not exceed a limit a Cabinet Order sets, taking account of the participant's category, whether they are also in a corporate-type or defined benefit plan, and other factors.This is the rule until 30 November 2026.(Art. 68(1), Art. 68(2), Art. 70(1), Art. 70(2), Art. 70(3), Art. 71(1), Art. 55(2)(iv-2), Art. 68-2(1), Art. 68-2(2), Art. 68-2(3), Art. 69(1), Art. 62(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• An individual-type participant pays contributions to the Association at least once a year, in an amount they decide and may change under the plan's rules. A participant who is a category 2 insured person, or a fifth-group participant insured under Employees' Pension Insurance, may pay through their employer, which may not refuse without good reason and may deduct the contribution from pay; a small and medium-sized employer (中小事業主) — one with no corporate-type or defined benefit plan and 300 or fewer category I insured employees — may add contributions of its own for its category I insured employees who pay that way, with the consent of the union of a majority of all its category I insured employees other than those Article 62, paragraph (2) bars from the individual-type plan or, where there is none, of a person representing that majority, and may, with the same consent, limit them to employees meeting a qualification that does not discriminate unfairly. A year's contributions, any employer's included, may not exceed a limit a Cabinet Order sets, taking account of the participant's category (the fifth group among them), whether they are also in a corporate-type or defined benefit plan, and other factors.This is the rule from 1 December 2026.(Art. 68(1), Art. 68(2), Art. 70(1), Art. 70(2), Art. 70(3), Art. 71(1), Art. 55(2)(iv-2), Art. 68-2(1), Art. 68-2(2), Art. 68-2(3), Art. 69(1), Art. 62(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The body handling investment for a plan — a registered operational management institution (確定拠出年金運営管理機関), or in a corporate-type plan the employer itself — must select, on expert knowledge, at least three investment methods (運用の方法), and no more than a Cabinet Order allows, whose expected returns and risks are not alike, present them to participants, and give information on each, including the profit expected and the loss possible. Each participant gives investment instructions (運用の指図) by choosing one or more of them and how much to put in each, and must be able to do so at least once every three months; the record-keeping institution tells them their balance at least once a year. Where the plan offers a default investment method (指定運用方法), a participant who gives no instruction within a period the rules set, of at least three months from the first contribution, is told so, and if they still give none within a further grace period of at least two weeks, is treated as having put all their uninstructed assets into it.(Art. 23(1), Art. 23(2), Art. 23(3), Art. 24(1), Art. 25(2), Art. 4(1)(v), Art. 56(1)(iii), Art. 27(1), Art. 23-2(1), Art. 25-2(1), Art. 25-2(2), Art. 73(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A former participant with assets left in the plan, who is neither entitled to its disability benefit nor a participant in another corporate-type plan, can claim the old-age benefit (老齢給付金) from 60 if their total enrollment period (通算加入者等期間) — their months as a participant or instructor in either plan, up to the month before they turned 60 — is at least 10 years; with less, they can claim from 61 with 8 years, from 62 with 6, from 63 with 4, from 64 with 2, and from 65 with one month. Someone aged 60 to 74 without that period can claim once five years have passed from a day a Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Order (厚生労働省令) sets, such as the day they joined. Anyone who has not claimed by 75 is paid without a claim, and the benefit is paid as a pension, or as a lump sum where the plan's rules allow; the individual-type plan follows the same rules, except for a person whose corporate-type assets were moved to the Association without a request (連合会移換者) and who has not since joined either plan or become an instructor in the individual-type plan: they have no claim to the old-age benefit before 75, when it is paid without a claim, and no disability benefit, until they ask the Association to become such an instructor.(Art. 33(1), Art. 33(1)(i), Art. 33(1)(ii), Art. 33(1)(iii), Art. 33(1)(iv), Art. 33(1)(v), Art. 33(1)(vi), Art. 33(2), Art. 34(1), Art. 35(1), Art. 35(2), Art. 73(1), Art. 73-2(1), Art. 55(2)(vi), Art. 64(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A participant or former participant with assets in the plan who, between the day a year and six months after first seeing a doctor or dentist for an illness or injury (or the day it heals or stabilises, if sooner) and the day before turning 75, comes to be disabled to a degree a Cabinet Order sets, can claim a disability benefit (障害給付金) within that time, and no tax or other public charge may be levied on it. When a participant or former participant with assets in the plan dies, a lump-sum death benefit (死亡一時金) goes to the survivor they named beforehand to the record-keeping institution from among their spouse (a de facto spouse included), children, parents, grandchildren, grandparents and siblings, or otherwise to survivors in the order the Act sets, the spouse first; no one who caused the death by an intentional crime can receive it, and if there is no survivor, or no claim is made within five years of the death, the amount counts as part of the estate (相続財産). The right to a benefit cannot be transferred, pledged or seized, except that the old-age benefit and the lump-sum death benefit can be seized in a national tax delinquency disposition or one that follows its procedure.(Art. 37(1), Art. 32(2), Art. 40(1), Art. 41(1), Art. 41(2), Art. 41(4), Art. 41(5), Art. 42(1), Art. 32(1), Art. 73(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A person who joins another employer's corporate-type plan can ask its record-keeping institution to have their assets moved in from an earlier corporate-type plan or from the individual-type plan; assets still in an earlier corporate-type plan six months after the month following the month they left it are moved in without a request, unless they are entitled to its disability benefit, and assets the Association holds for them after an automatic move (below) are moved in as soon as they join. A former corporate-type participant can instead have their assets moved into the individual-type plan by asking the Association while joining it or becoming an instructor there, or once they are one, or, where the receiving scheme's rules accept them, into a defined benefit corporate pension plan they have joined or to the Pension Fund Association (企業年金連合会). Assets not moved in any of these ways within six months from the month after the month the person left, or the month the plan ended, are moved to the National Pension Fund Association and the person is told — except, while the plan runs, for someone who stays on in it as an instructor of a corporate-type pension plan investment (企業型年金運用指図者): a participant who leaves at 60 or over, unless because they died or their workplace stopped running the plan, and a former participant entitled to the plan's disability benefit as a pension.(Art. 80(1), Art. 80(2), Art. 80(3), Art. 82(1), Art. 54-4(1), Art. 54-5(1), Art. 83(1), Art. 83(1)(i), Art. 83(1)(ii), Art. 83(2), Art. 15(1)(i), Art. 15(1)(ii)) (the provisions it rests on)

• 1 April 2026

  The text on this site

  Act Partially Amending the National Pension Act, etc., and Other Matters, to Strengthen the Functions of the Pension System in Light of Socioeconomic Changes

  社会経済の変化を踏まえた年金制度の機能強化のための国民年金法等の一部を改正する等の法律

  Act No. 74 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 20 June 2025

  Act Partially Amending the National Pension Act, etc., and Other Matters, to Strengthen the Functions of the Pension System in Light of Socioeconomic Changes

  社会経済の変化を踏まえた年金制度の機能強化のための国民年金法等の一部を改正する等の法律

  Act No. 74 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 June 2025

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Penal Code, etc.

  刑法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整理等に関する法律

  Act No. 68 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2024

  Act Partially Amending the Basic Act on the Formation of a Digital Society, etc. to Promote Regulatory Reform for the Formation of a Digital Society

  デジタル社会の形成を図るための規制改革を推進するためのデジタル社会形成基本法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 63 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 16 June 2023

  Act Partially Amending the Basic Act on the Formation of a Digital Society, etc. to Promote Regulatory Reform for the Formation of a Digital Society

  デジタル社会の形成を図るための規制改革を推進するためのデジタル社会形成基本法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 63 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 October 2022

  Act Partially Amending the National Pension Act, etc. to Strengthen the Functions of the Pension System

  年金制度の機能強化のための国民年金法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 40 of 2020The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 17 June 2022

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Penal Code, etc.

  刑法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整理等に関する法律

  Act No. 68 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 May 2022

  Act Partially Amending the National Pension Act, etc. to Strengthen the Functions of the Pension System

  年金制度の機能強化のための国民年金法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 40 of 2020The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2022

  Act Partially Amending the National Pension Act, etc. to Strengthen the Functions of the Pension System

  年金制度の機能強化のための国民年金法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 40 of 2020The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2021

  Act Partially Amending the National Pension Act, etc. to Strengthen the Functions of the Pension System

  年金制度の機能強化のための国民年金法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 40 of 2020The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

All 15 amendments already in force

• For the time being (当分の間), a person can take their assets out as a lump-sum withdrawal payment (脱退一時金), in an amount a Cabinet Order sets, if all of these hold: they are under 60; they are not a corporate-type participant; they are in none of the groups Article 62(1) lets join the individual-type plan; they are not among those the National Pension Act's supplementary provisions (附則), Article 5(1)(iii), describe — Japanese nationals and others a Cabinet Order names who are 20 to 64 and have no address in Japan; they are not entitled to a disability benefit; their contribution period (通算拠出期間), counting their contributing months in either plan, is within one a Cabinet Order sets, or their assets are no more than an amount it sets; and two years have not passed since they last stopped being a participant in either plan. They claim from the Association, or from their record-keeping institution if they are an instructor of an individual-type pension plan investment, and a former corporate-type participant who is not yet one makes the claim together with the request to become one. Once it is paid, their months in both plans before the month of payment no longer count toward the total enrollment period.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(1)(i), Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(1)(ii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(1)(iii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(1)(iv), Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(1)(v), Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(1)(vi), Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(1)(vii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(3), Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(4), Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(5), Art. 64(2), National Pension Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 5(1)(iii)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For the time being, a former corporate-type participant who is no longer a participant or instructor in either plan can also claim a lump-sum withdrawal payment from that plan's record-keeping institution within six months, counted from the month after the month they last left the plan, if their assets are no more than an amount a Cabinet Order sets, or if they meet every condition above except the two-year limit. The payment is their assets, in an amount a Cabinet Order sets, and once it is paid their earlier months no longer count toward the total enrollment period.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 2-2(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 2-2(1)(i), Suppl. Prov. Art. 2-2(1)(ii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 2-2(1)(iii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 2-2(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 2-2(3), Suppl. Prov. Art. 2-2(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A corporate-type plan's rules may provide that, when a participant leaves having worked at the workplace for less than three years, all or part of the assets a Cabinet Order treats as coming from the employer's contributions go back to the employer, and only the rest is moved on. Where the participant has worked there three years or more, or is entitled to the plan's disability benefit, whatever is moved must be moved whole.(Art. 3(3)(x), Art. 84(1), Art. 84(2), Art. 4(1)(vii)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For a simplified corporate-type pension plan (簡易企業型年金) already approved when Act No. 74 of 2025 came into force on 1 April 2026, the earlier wording of Article 19(2), on the amount of the employer's contributions, and of Article 23(1), on the investment methods to be presented, stays in force, with the employer's contributions to be a fixed amount (定額).(Suppl. Prov. Art. 32(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 1(1), Art. 19(2), Art. 23(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

• The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare approves each corporate-type plan's rules and any change to them other than a minor one, and, as far as enforcing the Act needs, may require the employer to report, and send officials to enter its premises, question those concerned and inspect. Where that shows the employer breaking the law, the plan's rules or a decision of the Minister, or running the plan in a seriously improper way, the Minister may order it to put this right within a set period, and may cancel the approval of the plan's rules if the order is not obeyed or the plan cannot go on.(Art. 3(1), Art. 5(1), Art. 51(1), Art. 52(1), Art. 52(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Only a corporation registered with the competent ministers — the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Prime Minister, who delegates his powers under that chapter, other than those a Cabinet Order keeps back, to the Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency (金融庁長官) — may run the business of keeping participants' records, settling benefit claims and selecting investment methods. As far as enforcing the Act needs, the ministers may require reports from such an institution, question and inspect at its offices, and, where it harms participants' interests, order it, as far as protecting them needs, to change how it works; where it breaks the Act or orders under it, got its registration wrongfully or the like, they may suspend all or part of its business for up to six months or cancel its registration, and publish that they have done so.(Art. 2(7), Art. 88(1), Art. 114(1), Art. 114(5), Art. 103(1), Art. 104(1), Art. 104(2), Art. 106(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Such an institution must act faithfully for participants, and must not, among other things, promise to bear their losses, offer special benefits to win a contract, make good their losses or add to their gains (except to make good a loss from an accident it is responsible for), conceal or misstate important facts when seeking a contract, or recommend that they choose or avoid a particular investment method, unless it does so expressly as a financial instruments business operator or in another business. Running the business unregistered or on a registration got wrongfully, letting another run it in one's name, or the promises and making good of losses are punishable by imprisonment (拘禁刑) of up to three years, a fine of up to 3 million yen, or both; the misstatement, or carrying on while suspended, by up to one year, up to 1 million yen, or both; a false application, not keeping its books or filing its reports, or obstructing an inspection, by up to six months or up to 500,000 yen; and not reporting changes to its registered details, breaking the rules on its sign, not keeping its business documents open to participants or disobeying an improvement order, by a fine of up to 500,000 yen. In each case the corporation or person the offender acted for is fined as well.(Art. 99(1), Art. 100(1), Art. 100(1)(iii), Art. 118(1), Art. 119(1), Art. 120(1), Art. 121(1), Art. 122(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Employers and asset management institutions (資産管理機関) must likewise act faithfully for participants, and an employer must not sign an administration or asset management contract to benefit itself or anyone other than the participants. Failing, among other things, to file a minor change of the rules, to keep the books, to submit the report to the Minister or to obey the Minister's order, or to tell a person that their assets have been moved, is liable to a civil fine (過料) of up to 200,000 yen, and anyone who, when the Minister calls an employer to account, will not report or answer, reports or answers falsely, or obstructs an inspection is punishable by imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of up to 500,000 yen.(Art. 43(1), Art. 43(3), Art. 44(1), Art. 123(1), Art. 120(1)(i)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A participant or former participant, and anyone who may receive the lump-sum death benefit, can inspect the register kept on them and ask about what it records, and the record-keeping institution or the Association may refuse only for good reason.(Art. 18(2), Art. 67(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A civil fine (過料) of up to 100,000 yen also awaits an employer that does not give the record-keeping institution its participants' names, addresses and other details; a corporate-type participant who does not tell the employer or that institution which plan they chose and the other matters required, or tells them falsely; an individual-type participant who does not file their name, address and other matters with the Association, or files falsely; and the person the Family Register Act (戸籍法) obliges to report a death who does not tell the Association, or for a corporate-type instructor the record-keeping institution, within 10 days that an instructor, an individual-type participant or a person whose assets were moved to the Association has died with assets in a plan, unless a Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Order excuses it.(Art. 124(1), Art. 16(1), Art. 16(2), Art. 66(1), Art. 113(1)) (the provisions it rests on)