Order for Enforcement of the Employees' Pension Insurance Act

• Under Article 82 of the Act the insured person and the employer each bear half of the premium (保険料), and for someone employed at two or more places of business at the same time this Order splits the employer's half: on the standard monthly remuneration (標準報酬月額), each employer bears half the premium multiplied by the share of the person's monthly remuneration (報酬月額) worked out for its own place, and on the standard bonus amount (標準賞与額), half the premium multiplied by the share of that month's bonuses it paid. Each employer pays its own share together with the matching share of the employee. Where the person works on a ship and at a place of business at the same time, the shipowner (船舶所有者) alone bears half the premium and pays the whole of it, and the other employer bears and pays nothing.(Art. 4(1), Art. 4(2), Art. 4(3), Art. 4(4), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 82(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 82(2), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 82(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where an insured person raising a child under three applies under Article 26 of the Act to have the standard monthly remuneration (標準報酬月額) from before the child count for their pension, that earlier amount also counts when the pension is later revised, and for category I and category IV insured persons (category IV being private school staff) the application counts as made to the Japan Pension Service (日本年金機構) or to the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan (日本私立学校振興・共済事業団) as soon as the employer receives it. For the revision of the standard monthly remuneration on returning from childcare leave (Article 23-2 of the Act), a child also includes a child as defined in the Acts on childcare leave for Diet staff, national public employees, local public employees and judges.(Art. 1-5(1), Art. 1-5(2), Art. 1-4(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 26(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 23-2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• An old-age employees' pension (老齢厚生年金) can be claimed early under Article 7-3 of the Act's supplementary provisions by a person aged 60 to 64 who was born on or after the day the Act sets for their sex and category, is not a voluntary National Pension member, and has the ten-year qualifying period of Article 42(ii) of the Act; it is then reduced by 0.4% for each month from the month of the claim to the month before the person reaches 65, applied to the pension worked out on their insured months up to the month before the claim. A pension deferred under Article 44-3 of the Act, by a person who did not claim it within a year of becoming entitled and was not entitled to another pension, is increased by 0.7% for each month from the month of entitlement to the month before the request, counting at most 120 months, applied to the pension worked out on their insured months before entitlement and scaled by the average, over the months from the one after entitlement to the month of the request (the last ten years at most), of the share of it that the working-pensioner reduction (Article 46(1) of the Act) left payable. The early-claim rate applies to people who had not reached 60 on 31 March 2022, and the deferral rule to people whose entitlement was less than five years old that day.(Art. 6-3(1), Art. 3-5-2(1), Art. 3-5-2(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 1(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 4(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 6(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 7-3(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 7-3(4), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 42(1)(ii), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 44-3(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 44-3(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For the disability employees' pension (障害厚生年金), grades 1 and 2 are the grade 1 and grade 2 states of the appended table of the National Pension Act Enforcement Order (国民年金法施行令), and grade 3 is set in Appended Table 1 of this Order: among others, eyesight of 0.1 or less in each eye, hearing so reduced that ordinary speech cannot be understood from 40 centimetres or more, a considerable impairment of chewing or speech, a marked impairment of the spine, other conditions of body or mind that markedly restrict work, and an uncured condition that restricts work and that the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare (厚生労働大臣) specifies. The disability allowance (障害手当金), for a person insured on the day of the first visit to a doctor whose condition heals within five years of it, requires a state in Appended Table 2 — among others eyesight of 0.6 or less in each eye or of 0.1 or less in one eye, loss of the index finger of one hand, a leg shortened by 3 centimetres or more, and other conditions that restrict work.(Art. 3-8(1), Appended Table 1, Art. 3-9(1), Appended Table 2, Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 47(2), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 55(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Under the Act, the lump-sum withdrawal payment (脱退一時金) is the person's average standard remuneration over their insured months multiplied by a payment rate: half the premium rate of the October of the year before their last insured month (of two years before, if that month falls in January to August), times a number this Order sets from their insured months. That number is 6 for 6 to 11 months, rising by 6 for each further six months, up to 60 for 60 months or more. Insured months in more than one category — for example as a company employee and as a public employee — are added together for this purpose.(Art. 12-2(1), Art. 16(1), Art. 16(2), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(3), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(4)) (the provisions it rests on)

• 1 October 2026

  The text on this site

  Cabinet Order on the Arrangement of Related Cabinet Orders upon the Partial Enforcement of the 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の一部の施行に伴う関係政令の整備に関する政令

  Cabinet Order No. 276 of 2026The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 20 June 2025

  Cabinet Order on the Arrangement of Related Cabinet Orders upon the Partial Enforcement of the 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の一部の施行に伴う関係政令の整備に関する政令

  Cabinet Order No. 223 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 September 2023

  Cabinet Order Partially Amending the Order for Organization of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Order on the Council of Food, Agriculture and Rural Area Policies

  厚生労働省組織令及び食料・農業・農村政策審議会令の一部を改正する政令

  Cabinet Order No. 263 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2023

  Cabinet Order on the Arrangement of Related Cabinet Orders and on Transitional Measures upon the Enforcement of the 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の施行に伴う関係政令の整備及び経過措置に関する政令

  Cabinet Order No. 229 of 2021The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 October 2022

  Cabinet Order on the Arrangement of Related Cabinet Orders and on Transitional Measures upon the Enforcement of the 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の施行に伴う関係政令の整備及び経過措置に関する政令

  Cabinet Order No. 229 of 2021The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 28 June 2022

  Cabinet Order Partially Amending the Order for Organization of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

  厚生労働省組織令の一部を改正する政令

  Cabinet Order No. 235 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 24 June 2022

  Order for Enforcement of the Act on Special Measures Necessary for the Preparation and Operation of the International Horticultural Exposition to Be Held in 2027

  令和九年に開催される国際園芸博覧会の準備及び運営のために必要な特別措置に関する法律施行令

  Cabinet Order No. 226 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2022

  Cabinet Order on the Arrangement of Related Cabinet Orders and on Transitional Measures upon the Enforcement of the 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の施行に伴う関係政令の整備及び経過措置に関する政令

  Cabinet Order No. 229 of 2021The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 January 2022

  Cabinet Order Partially Amending the Order for Enforcement of the National Pension Act, etc.

  国民年金法施行令等の一部を改正する政令

  Cabinet Order No. 303 of 2021The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 September 2021

  Cabinet Order on the Arrangement, etc. of Related Cabinet Orders upon the Enforcement of the Act on the Establishment of the Digital Agency

  デジタル庁設置法の施行に伴う関係政令の整備等に関する政令

  Cabinet Order No. 195 of 2021The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

All 25 amendments already in force

• For a national or local public employee (category II or III insured person) paid by the month who becomes insured partway through a month, the monthly remuneration on joining is not worked out by the rule of Article 22(1)(i) of the Act, which divides the pay by the days of its period and multiplies it by 30: it is the pay they would have received for that month had they joined on its first day.(Art. 1-3(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 22(1)(i)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A part-time worker under 70 who is one of the workers to whom Article 7 of the Minimum Wage Act (最低賃金法), a separate Act, is applied, and whose pay worked out as on joining is under 88,000 yen (特定減額特例対象者), is, under the Act, insured only on applying. Under this Order, one who stops being such a worker while staying employed at the same place of business, and comes under none of the exclusions of Article 12 of the Act that day, becomes insured from the most recent day they stopped being one. For one who was already insured on application, the change is not treated as leaving and rejoining: the rules on confirming it and on deciding a new standard monthly remuneration do not apply, and for the insured period, the employer's notifications and the register they are treated as having neither left nor joined that day.(Art. 6-2-3(1), Art. 6-2-5(1), Art. 6-2-5(2), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 4-6(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 4-6(2), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 13(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The part of the dependant addition (加給年金額) to an old-age employees' pension that is paid for a spouse is stopped, under Article 46(6) of the Act, while the spouse can receive one of the benefits this Order lists: an old-age employees' pension based on 240 insured months or more (or on the shorter periods some transitional rules allow), a disability employees' pension, a disability basic pension (障害基礎年金), an old-age, retirement or disability pension of the former schemes and the mutual aid associations, a retirement or disability pension under the Public Officers Pension Act (恩給法) or a local ordinance (条例), or a disability pension under the Act on Relief of War Victims and Survivors (戦傷病者戦没者遺族等援護法), among others. A disability benefit that is wholly stopped does not count.(Art. 3-7(1), Art. 3-7(1)(i), Art. 3-7(1)(i-2), Art. 3-7(1)(vii), Art. 3-7(1)(viii), Art. 3-7(1)(xii), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 46(6)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Under the Act, an old-age employees' pension claimed early (Article 7-3 of the Act's supplementary provisions) is stopped, for a holder under 65 who qualifies for the basic allowance (基本手当) under the Employment Insurance Act (雇用保険法), a separate Act, and has applied for work under it, from the month after the application until their period for the allowance ends or it has been paid in full — except in a month with no day on which the allowance counts as received and no similar day a Cabinet Order sets, and in a month for which the pension is already stopped in whole or part under the working-pensioner reduction. This Order makes those similar days the days in a period during which the allowance is not paid under Article 21, 32(1) or (2) or 33(1) of that Act, so a month with such a day stays stopped. The same applies where Articles 11-5 and 13-6(3) of the Act's supplementary provisions apply this rule to other old-age pensions paid before 65.(Art. 6-4(1), Art. 6-4(2), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 7-4(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 7-4(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For someone with insured months in more than one category — for example as a company employee and as a public employee — the dependant addition (加給年金額) is due when the months of all categories together reach 240, and is added to the old-age pension of the category whose entitlement came first; where more than one came first together, to the one with the longest period, and where those are equal, in the order category I, II, III, IV. If the addition on that pension is stopped for a reason other than the spouse's own pension, it is added instead to the pension of another category that is not wholly stopped.(Art. 3-13(1), Art. 3-13(2), Art. 3-13(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Under Article 56 of the Act, a person entitled to a pension under this Act or the National Pension Act (国民年金法) on the day the disability is assessed gets no disability allowance (障害手当金), except, among others, the holder of a disability employees' pension who has been out of the disability grades for three years and still is; this Order adds to that exception the holder of a disability basic pension (障害基礎年金), or of a disability pension under the former National Pension Act, in the same position.(Art. 3-9-2(1), Art. 3-9-2(1)(i), Art. 3-9-2(1)(ii), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 56(1)(i), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 56(1)(ii)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The Act's rule letting police and fire staff (特定警察職員等) born on or after 2 April 1967 claim the old-age pension early covers, under this Order, police officers up to the rank of police inspector (警部), Imperial Guard officers up to Imperial Guard inspector (皇宮警部), fire officers up to fire commander (消防司令) and full-time fire corps members up to deputy chief (副団長) who served 20 years or more in a row at such a rank. It also covers those whose service at such a rank was broken by a move to another post not of their own making and adds up to 20 years or more, and those promoted out of such a rank who would otherwise have completed 20 years by that day.(Art. 6-2-6(1), Art. 6-2-6(2), Art. 6-2-6(2)(i), Art. 6-2-6(2)(ii), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 7-3(1)(iv)) (the provisions it rests on)

• The Act gives each category of insured person an implementing organization (実施機関), and for public employees this Order says which body does which part. For a national public employee (category II), the national public employees' mutual aid association (国家公務員共済組合) decides the standard monthly remuneration and standard bonus amounts and handles the premium exemptions for childcare and maternity leave and, while the person or their spouse is a member, the splitting of records after a divorce; the association and its federation (国家公務員共済組合連合会) both handle the register and the premiums, and the federation does the rest of the work, the benefits included. For a local public employee (category III), the local public employees' mutual aid association (地方公務員共済組合) does most of the work itself, but for members of the associations grouped in the National Federation of Municipal Employees' Mutual Aid Associations (全国市町村職員共済組合連合会) that federation does the benefits and the other remaining work and shares the register and the premiums with the member's own association, and the federation of local public employees' associations (地方公務員共済組合連合会) takes part in the work under the articles the Order lists.(Art. 1(1), Art. 1(1)(i), Art. 1(1)(ii), Art. 1(1)(iii), Art. 1(2), Art. 1(2)(i), Art. 1(2)(ii), Art. 1(2)(iii), Art. 1(2)(iv), Art. 1(2)(v), Art. 1(2)(vi), Art. 1(2)(vii), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 2-5(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• When someone claims the lump-sum withdrawal payment under this Act at the same time as the one under the National Pension Act (国民年金法), the work of paying it is done by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare (厚生労働大臣), the implementing organization for category I, whatever category the person's insured months were in. Otherwise, the lump-sum withdrawal payment of someone with months in more than one category is handled by the implementing organization for the category of their last insured month.(Art. 15(1), Art. 16(3), Art. 16(4), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 2-5(1)(i)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare can have the Japan Pension Service (日本年金機構) receive premiums and other amounts due, after announcing it publicly, in the cases this Order sets: where a payer who has received a demand (督促), or whose premiums were made due early, asks to pay at a pension office (年金事務所); where a Service collection officer visits such a payer and the payer asks to pay the officer; where that officer obtains money in a disposition following the procedure for delinquent national taxes; and in other cases a Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Order (厚生労働省令) sets. The Service must publish the names and addresses of its pension offices and the other matters that Ministry's Order sets, and must give each payer a receipt. It may receive amounts belonging to a fiscal year only until 30 April of the next.(Art. 4-5(1), Art. 4-5(1)(i), Art. 4-5(1)(ii), Art. 4-5(1)(iii), Art. 4-5(1)(iv), Art. 4-5(1)(v), Art. 4-6(1), Art. 4-6(2), Art. 4-7(1), Art. 4-8(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 100-11(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where a payer is behind with premiums for at least the number of months a Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Order (厚生労働省令) sets, may be hiding property to escape a disposition for arrears (滞納処分), owes at least an amount that Ministry's Order sets — counting health insurance premiums, contributions under the Child and Childcare Support Act (子ども・子育て支援法) and other such amounts in arrears too — and shows no sincere intention to pay despite dispositions, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare may, where it is needed for effective collection, hand the dispositions for arrears over to the Minister of Finance (財務大臣). The Minister hands over all of them except those the Order keeps back, such as notices, extensions, a stay of execution of a disposition for arrears and waivers (免除). The Commissioner of the National Tax Agency (国税庁長官) passes all of them to the commissioner of the regional taxation bureau (国税局長) for the place of the payer's business, who may pass them on to the head of the district tax office (税務署長).(Art. 4-2-16(1), Art. 4-2-16(1)(i), Art. 4-2-16(1)(ii), Art. 4-2-16(1)(iii), Art. 4-2-16(1)(iv), Art. 4-3(1), Art. 4-4(1), Art. 4-4(2), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 100-5(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A request by a category I insured person, or a former one, to correct their record in the Employees' Pension Insurance register (厚生年金保険原簿), which the Act has the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare decide, is decided under this Order by the Director-General of the Regional Bureau of Health and Welfare (地方厚生局長) for the area of the Japan Pension Service office, pension offices included, that received it, and in turn by the head of the branch bureau (地方厚生支局長) for that area. The Minister and the Director-General may still decide it themselves.(Art. 4-4-2(1), Art. 4-4-2(2), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 28-2(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 28-4(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A decision of the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare on the lump-sum withdrawal payment can be challenged, under the Act, by a request for review (審査請求) to the Social Insurance Examination Committee (社会保険審査会). With the wording this Order substitutes, a court action to cancel the decision can be brought only after the Committee has decided on that request.(Art. 13(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(6), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(8), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 91-3(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• This Order sets no penalty of its own. Under the Act, an employer who without good reason fails to make, or falsely makes, the notifications Article 27 of the Act requires — of employees joining and leaving the insurance and of their remuneration and bonuses — fails to pass a notice of a decision on to the employee, fails to pay premiums by the deadline in a demand letter (督促状), or refuses an official's request for documents, questions or inspection, is punished by imprisonment (拘禁刑) for up to six months or a fine (罰金) of up to 500,000 yen, and anyone else who refuses an official's questions or inspection by up to six months or a fine of up to 300,000 yen. Where an employee or representative commits one of these offences in the business of a company or of an individual employer, the company or employer is fined as well.(Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 102(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 102(1)(i), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 102(1)(ii), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 102(1)(iii), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 102(2), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 103(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 104(1), Employees' Pension Insurance Act Art. 27(1)) (the provisions it rests on)