Employees' Pension Insurance Act

• The standardized monthly amount of remuneration is a grade in the table of Article 20, from 88,000 yen upward, picked by the employee's monthly remuneration (報酬) — everything received as pay for work, but not one-off payments, nor payments made at intervals longer than three months, which are bonuses (賞与); a Cabinet Order (政令) can add grades above the table's top one on the conditions Article 20(2) sets. The implementing organization (実施機関) sets it on joining; every year, from the average pay of April to June at the employer of 1 July, leaving out months with fewer than 17 days of paid work (11 for workers a Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Order names), for September to the next August; and it may revise it when the pay of three consecutive months, each with at least 17 such days, differs markedly from the amount the grade was based on. The standardized amount of bonus is each bonus rounded down to the nearest 1,000 yen and capped at 1.5 million yen a month, or at an amount a Cabinet Order sets once grades have been added.(Art. 3(1)(iii), Art. 3(1)(iv), Art. 20(1), Art. 20(2), Art. 21(1), Art. 21(2), Art. 22(1), Art. 23(1), Art. 24-4(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The employees' old-age pension (老齢厚生年金) is paid from 65 to anyone who has been insured, if their paid and exempted National Pension months (保険料納付済期間, 保険料免除期間) total at least 10 years; the periods counted toward eligibility only (合算対象期間) under the National Pension Act also count. Its yearly amount is 5.481/1,000 of the person's average standardized remuneration (平均標準報酬額) over their insured months — each month's standardized pay and bonuses revalued by rates (再評価率) revised every fiscal year — multiplied by the number of those months, though months before April 2003 count at 7.125/1,000 of the average standardized monthly pay alone, under supplementary provisions of Act No. 18 of 2000, which amended this Act. While the pensioner stays insured, the amount is recalculated every year as of 1 September to take in the months insured since, and again once a month has passed after they stop being insured.(Art. 42(1), Art. 42(1)(i), Art. 42(1)(ii), Art. 3(1)(i), Art. 3(1)(ii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 14(1), Art. 43(1), Art. 43-2(1), Art. 43(2), Art. 43(3), Suppl. Prov. Art. 20(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Someone entitled to the old-age pension who has not claimed it within a year can ask to defer it (支給繰下げ), and is then paid from the month after asking, at an amount increased by a Cabinet Order — unless, when the pension began or within that year, they were or became entitled to another pension under this Act or the National Pension Act other than the old-age basic pension, the supplementary pension (付加年金) or the disability basic pension. A request made after that year counts as made on the day another such pension became due, if they became entitled to one within 10 years of entitlement, and otherwise, if made more than 10 years after entitlement, on the day 10 years had passed. Someone who claims more than five years after entitlement without asking to defer is treated as having asked five years before the claim, unless 15 years have passed since entitlement or another such pension began before that earlier day.This is the rule until 31 March 2028.(Art. 44-3(1), Art. 44-3(2), Art. 44-3(2)(i), Art. 44-3(2)(ii), Art. 44-3(3), Art. 44-3(4), Art. 44-3(5), Art. 44-3(5)(i), Art. 44-3(5)(ii)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Someone entitled to the old-age pension who has not claimed it within a year can ask to defer it (支給繰下げ), and is then paid from the month after asking, at an amount increased by a Cabinet Order — unless, when the pension began or within that year, they were or became entitled to another pension under this Act or the National Pension Act other than the old-age basic pension, the supplementary pension (付加年金) or the disability basic pension; a request made after that year counts as made on the day another such pension became due if they became entitled to one within 10 years, and otherwise, if made after 10 years, on the 10-year day, and a claim made more than five years after entitlement without asking to defer counts as a request five years before it, unless 15 years have passed or another such pension began before then. Someone who has at some time since becoming entitled to the old-age pension been entitled to an employees' pension for surviving family may defer it on the same terms even so, unless they had an employees' disability pension or a National Pension pension other than those three at entitlement or within the year, or claimed the survivors' pension before asking; only one of the two kinds of request can be made, and once this one is made the survivors' pension is wholly stopped, back to the month after it began. A transitional provision of Act No. 74 of 2025 decides whom this reaches by their position on 31 March 2028; among other things, it reaches someone then entitled to a survivors' pension only if they were under 65.This is the rule from 1 April 2028.(Art. 44-3(1), Art. 44-3(2), Art. 44-3(2)(i), Art. 44-3(2)(ii), Art. 44-3(3), Art. 44-3(4), Art. 44-3(5), Art. 44-3(5)(i), Art. 44-3(5)(ii), Art. 44-4(1), Art. 44-4(1)(i), Art. 44-4(1)(ii), Art. 44-4(1)(iii), Art. 44-4(2), Art. 44-5(1), Art. 64-2(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 13(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• In a month in which an old-age pensioner is insured, sits in the Diet or a local assembly, or is an employed person aged 70 or over (七十歳以上の使用される者) — in each case continuously since a day of an earlier month — the pension is reduced if their standardized monthly remuneration plus a twelfth of their standardized bonuses of the past year, added to a twelfth of the yearly pension (leaving out the dependants' addition and any deferral increase), exceeds a monthly threshold (支給停止調整額): half the excess is withheld, up to the whole pension apart from the deferral increase. The Act sets the threshold at 620,000 yen and, from fiscal 2025, changes it from April of any year in which that amount, adjusted for prices and wages and rounded to 10,000 yen, differs from the one in force, so the figure in force can differ.(Art. 46(1), Art. 46(3), Art. 46(4), Art. 27(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• An employees' disability pension (障害厚生年金) is paid to someone who was insured on the day they first saw a doctor or dentist for the illness or injury (初診日) and who, 18 months later or on an earlier day the condition is cured or stops improving (障害認定日), is disabled to grade 1, 2 or 3 as a Cabinet Order describes the grades — or who reaches those grades later and claims it, both by the day before their 65th birthday; it is not paid if, on the day before the first visit, their paid and exempted National Pension months are less than two-thirds of their insured months up to two months before it, though for a first visit before 1 April 2036 by someone under 65 it is enough that the year up to then holds no insured month that was neither paid nor exempted. Its amount is worked out like the old-age pension, counting at least 300 insured months, with grade 1 paid at 125% of that, and where no disability basic pension is payable for the disability it is at least three-quarters of that basic pension's amount. Someone first seen while insured who meets the same contribution conditions and whose condition is cured within five years of that visit, with a lesser disability a Cabinet Order describes, receives instead a disability allowance (障害手当金) of twice that amount (at least twice the minimum) — unless they are then entitled to a pension under this Act or the National Pension Act, with exceptions, or to disability compensation for that same injury or illness under the Labor Standards Act (労働基準法), the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act (労働者災害補償保険法), the public employees' accident compensation Acts or the Mariners' Insurance Act (船員保険法), which are separate Acts.(Art. 47(1), Art. 47(2), Art. 47-2(1), Art. 47-2(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 64(1), Art. 50(1), Art. 50(2), Art. 50(3), Art. 55(1), Art. 55(2), Art. 56(1), Art. 56(1)(i), Art. 56(1)(ii), Art. 56(1)(iii), Art. 57(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• An employees' pension for surviving family (遺族厚生年金) is paid when an insured person dies, when a former insured person dies within five years of a first doctor's visit made while insured, when someone with a grade 1 or 2 disability pension dies, or when someone with at least 25 years of paid and exempted months (periods counted toward eligibility only included) dies; in the first two cases the deceased must meet the disability pension's contribution conditions. It goes to the spouse, child, parent, grandchild or grandparent the deceased supported (生計を維持), the spouse and children first, then parents, grandchildren and grandparents in that order — a husband, parent or grandparent only if 55 or over, and only from 60 unless a husband also receives the survivors' basic pension; a child or grandchild only if unmarried and not past the first 31 March after turning 18, or under 20 with a grade 1 or 2 disability; and spouse, husband and wife include an unregistered de facto partner. It is three-quarters of the deceased's old-age pension amount, counting at least 300 months in the first three cases — for a spouse aged 65 or over with an old-age pension of their own, the larger of that and two-thirds of it plus half their own old-age pension; a wife under 30 with no survivors' basic pension receives it for five years (and one whose survivors' basic pension ends before 30, for five years from then), a wife who was 40 to 64 when she became entitled receives an addition until 65 on the conditions of Article 62, and from 65 the part equal to the survivor's own old-age pension is not paid.This is the rule until 31 March 2028.(Art. 58(1), Art. 58(1)(i), Art. 58(1)(ii), Art. 58(1)(iii), Art. 58(1)(iv), Suppl. Prov. Art. 64(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 14(1), Art. 59(1), Art. 59(1)(i), Art. 59(1)(ii), Art. 59(2), Art. 3(2), Art. 60(1)(i), Art. 62(1), Art. 63(1)(v), Art. 64-2(1), Art. 65-2(1), Art. 66(1), Art. 60(1)(ii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 17-2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For a death from 1 April 2028, the employees' pension for surviving family is paid in the same four cases, to a spouse of any age the deceased supported (生計を維持), or a spouse under 60 who shared a livelihood (生計を同じく) with them, and to a child or grandchild who is unmarried and under the 18-year or disabled-under-20 limits, or a parent or grandparent aged 60 or over, whom the deceased supported; for a wife under 60 whose husband dies before 1 April 2048, the rules for spouses under 60 reach her only if she was born on or after 2 April 1989. A spouse under 60 when entitled who has no survivors' basic pension, or whose survivors' basic pension ends before 60, receives three-quarters of the deceased's old-age pension amount plus a further quarter of that same amount, so the whole of it; from five years after entitlement, or five years after the survivors' basic pension (theirs, or that of a child living with them) ends, it is reduced or stopped as their previous year's income passes limits a Cabinet Order sets — except, among other cases, while they hold a qualifying disability pension — and it ends at 65, on entitlement to an old-age pension, or after two years wholly stopped. For a death before 1 April 2028 the earlier rules on who qualifies, when the pension ends and when it is stopped still apply, and a wife's pension that became due on or before 1 April 2053 keeps the addition of the former Article 62, multiplied by a rate that falls with the date it became due.This is the rule from 1 April 2028.(Art. 58(1), Art. 59(1), Art. 59(1)(i), Art. 59(1)(ii), Art. 59(2), Art. 3(2), Art. 60(1)(i), Art. 62(1), Art. 65(1), Art. 65(2), Art. 65(3), Art. 65(4), Art. 63(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 14(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 14(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 15(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 15(2), Suppl. Prov. Appended Table 1) (the provisions it rests on)
• An employees' pension for surviving family ends when the survivor dies, marries (an unregistered de facto marriage included), is adopted (de facto adoption included) by someone other than a direct blood relative or relative by marriage, or stops being related to the deceased when an adoption is dissolved. A child's or grandchild's ends at the end of the first 31 March after they turn 18, unless they then have a grade 1 or 2 disability, when such a disability ends after that date, or at 20; a parent's, grandchild's or grandparent's ends when a child of the deceased who was unborn at the death is born.This is the rule until 31 March 2028.(Art. 63(1), Art. 63(1)(i), Art. 63(1)(ii), Art. 63(1)(iii), Art. 63(1)(iv), Art. 63(2), Art. 63(2)(i), Art. 63(2)(ii), Art. 63(2)(iii), Art. 63(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For a death from 1 April 2028, an employees' pension for surviving family ends when the survivor dies, marries, is adopted by someone other than a direct blood relative or relative by marriage, or stops being related to the deceased when an adoption is dissolved, and a spouse's pension that became due before 60 also ends in the cases said above. A child's or grandchild's ends at the end of the first 31 March after they turn 18, unless they then have a grade 1 or 2 disability, when such a disability ends after that date, or at 20; a parent's, grandchild's or grandparent's ends when a child of the deceased who was unborn at the death is born. For a death before 1 April 2028 the earlier rules on when it ends still apply.This is the rule from 1 April 2028.(Art. 63(1), Art. 63(1)(i), Art. 63(1)(ii), Art. 63(1)(iii), Art. 63(1)(iv), Art. 63(2), Art. 63(3), Art. 63(3)(i), Art. 63(3)(ii), Art. 63(3)(iii), Art. 63(4), Suppl. Prov. Art. 14(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• After a divorce, an annulment or another event a Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Order names, either former spouse can ask the implementing organization to split the standardized remuneration of their insured months during the marriage (標準報酬改定請求), if they have agreed on the request and on the share — more than the share the receiving spouse already has of the couple's total, and at most half — or a family court has set the share on either one's application; the request is barred five years after the divorce (two years after a divorce before 1 April 2026) and in other cases that Order names. The split takes effect only from the day of the request, months in which only the spouse giving up remuneration was insured counting as insured months of the other, and an old-age or disability pension being paid is recalculated from the following month. Separately, a former spouse who was the insured person's dependent spouse — a category 3 insured person under the National Pension Act (国民年金法) — can ask alone, without any agreement, to have the remuneration of the months they were dependent split in half, unless the insured person receives a disability pension based on those months or in other cases that Order names.(Art. 78-2(1), Art. 78-2(1)(i), Art. 78-2(1)(ii), Art. 78-2(2), Art. 78-3(1), Art. 78-2(1) until 31 March 2026, Suppl. Prov. Art. 10(1), Art. 78-6(3), Art. 78-6(4), Art. 78-10(1), Art. 78-10(2), Art. 78-14(1), Art. 78-14(2), Art. 78-14(3), Art. 78-14(5)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A person without Japanese nationality who is not insured under the National Pension (国民年金), has at least six months insured under this Act, and whose paid and exempted months, together with the periods counted toward eligibility only (合算対象期間), fall short of the 10 years the old-age pension needs — or who is in a similar position a Cabinet Order describes — can claim a lump-sum withdrawal payment (脱退一時金). They cannot claim while they have an address (住所) in Japan, if they have ever been entitled to an employees' disability pension or another benefit a Cabinet Order names, or once two years have passed since they last lost National Pension insured status — or, if they still lived in Japan that day, since they first stopped living in Japan after it. These rules apply until a day a Cabinet Order sets, no later than 19 June 2029; the rules below then say who still claims under them.This is the rule until the change takes effect, 19 June 2029 at the latest.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(1)(i), Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(1)(ii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(1)(iii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 14(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 1(1)(xii)) (the provisions it rests on)
• From a day a Cabinet Order sets, no later than 19 June 2029, a person without Japanese nationality who is not insured under the National Pension (国民年金), has at least six months insured under this Act, and whose paid and exempted months, together with the periods counted toward eligibility only (合算対象期間), fall short of the 10 years the old-age pension needs — or who is in a similar position a Cabinet Order describes — can claim a lump-sum withdrawal payment (脱退一時金). They cannot claim while they are staying in Japan or hold a re-entry permit (再入国許可) under the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, including one that Act treats as granted; if they have ever been entitled to an employees' disability pension or another benefit a Cabinet Order names; or once two years have passed since they last lost National Pension insured status — or, if on that day they were in Japan or held a re-entry permit, since they first ceased to be either. These bars apply to claims made from that day on, except that the claims of someone already 60 or over on that day stay under the rules in force before it.This is the rule from a day still to be set, 19 June 2029 at the latest.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(1)(i), Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(1)(ii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(1)(iii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(1)(iv), Suppl. Prov. Art. 14(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 1(1)(xii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 19(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 19(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The lump-sum withdrawal payment is the person's average standardized remuneration — the total of the standardized monthly amounts and bonuses of their insured months divided by the number of those months — multiplied by a payment rate: half the contribution rate of the October before the year of their last insured month (the October two years before, if that month falls in January to August), times a number a Cabinet Order sets according to the insured period, rounded to one decimal place; for periods as a public employee or private school staff member, supplementary provisions of Act No. 63 of 2012, which amended this Act, use those schemes' own rates for some years. Someone insured in more than one category has all their insured months added together for the six-month test, and the payment worked out separately for each category's months. Once it has been paid, the insured months it was based on are treated as if the person had never been insured.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(3), Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(4), Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(5), Suppl. Prov. Art. 23(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 23(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 23(3), Suppl. Prov. Art. 30(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

• 1 October 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

• 25 May 2026

  Act on the Promotion of Business Financing, etc.

  事業性融資の推進等に関する法律

  Act No. 52 of 2024The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2026

  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 December 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

  Read the law as it stood until 31 March 2026

• 1 October 2025

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts to Promote the Use of Information and Communications Technology in Civil Procedures, etc.

  民事関係手続等における情報通信技術の活用等の推進を図るための関係法律の整備に関する法律

  Act No. 53 of 2023The 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

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• 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 2025

  Act Partially Amending the Act on Support for Children and Child-rearing, etc.

  子ども・子育て支援法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 47 of 2024The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2025

  Act Partially Amending the Employment Insurance Act, etc.

  雇用保険法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 14 of 2020The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 October 2024

  Act Partially Amending the Act on Support for Children and Child-rearing, etc.

  子ども・子育て支援法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 47 of 2024The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

All 41 amendments already in force

• For the time being, an old-age pension is paid before 65, from an age between 60 and 64 set by date of birth, to someone with at least a year insured and the 10 years who was born before 2 April 1961 — before 2 April 1966 for a woman's category I periods, with other dates for long-serving miners and seafarers and for police officers and firefighters. Someone born on or after those dates who is 60 to 64, has an insured period under this Act, has the 10 years and is not a voluntary National Pension member may instead claim the old-age pension early (支給繰上げ), paid from the month of the claim at an amount reduced by a Cabinet Order; they must claim at the same time any early old-age basic pension open to them, and if they are insured after the claim the amount is recalculated when they turn 65.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 8(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 8(1)(i), Suppl. Prov. Art. 8(1)(ii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 8(1)(iii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 8-2(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 8-2(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 8-2(3), Suppl. Prov. Art. 8-2(4), Suppl. Prov. Art. 7-3(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 7-3(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 7-3(3), Suppl. Prov. Art. 7-3(4), Suppl. Prov. Art. 7-3(5), Suppl. Prov. Art. 14(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• While an insured employee is on childcare leave (育児休業等), no contribution is collected, once the employer applies to the implementing organization, from the month the leave starts to the month before the month of the day after it ends — or, for a leave that starts and ends within one month, for that month if it lasts 14 days or more; for a leave of a month or less, contributions on bonuses are still collected. Likewise, while an insured employee is on maternity leave (産前産後休業) — off work up to 42 days (98 for a multiple pregnancy) before the birth and 56 days after it — no contribution is collected for those months once the employer applies.(Art. 81-2(1), Art. 81-2(1)(i), Art. 81-2(1)(ii), Art. 81-2(3), Art. 81-2-2(1), Art. 23-3(1), Art. 23-2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• An insured or former insured person raising a child under three whose standardized monthly remuneration falls below what it was in the month before they began raising the child can apply, through the employer if insured, to have the earlier amount counted instead when their pension is calculated, for the months until the child turns three or another event Article 26 lists; months before the application count only within the two years before it.(Art. 26(1), Art. 26(1)(i), Art. 26(1)(ii), Art. 26(1)(iii), Art. 26(1)(iv), Art. 26(1)(v), Art. 26(1)(vi)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For category II, III and IV insured persons — public employees and private school staff — and their employers, the confirmation of joining and leaving, the rules of Chapter II, Section 4 other than Articles 28 and 31-2, the notifications of Article 98, the employer's tasks of Article 99 and the inspections of Article 100 do not apply: their contributions are collected and arrears pursued under the mutual aid Acts (共済各法), which are separate Acts, and challenges to their mutual aid bodies' decisions go to the review boards of those schemes. A category II, III or IV insured person cannot also be a category I insured person, and a category I insured person who becomes one of them stops being category I that day.(Art. 31-3(1), Art. 18(4), Art. 98(5), Art. 99(2), Art. 100(4), Art. 84-2(1), Art. 87-2(1), Art. 89-2(1), Art. 90(2), Art. 90(6), Art. 18-2(1), Art. 18-2(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• As a rule one pension is paid at a time: a pension under this Act is stopped while its holder can receive another pension under this Act or the National Pension Act, and the holder can apply to have the stop lifted on the one they choose. Still, an old-age pension is paid together with the old-age basic and supplementary pensions, a disability pension with the disability basic pension for the same disability, and a survivors' pension with the survivors' basic pension for the same death; from 65, an old-age pension is also paid with a survivors' pension or a disability basic pension, and a survivors' pension with an old-age, supplementary or disability basic pension. A survivors' pension paid to someone 65 or over who is entitled to an old-age pension is paid only for any part above that old-age pension's amount.(Art. 38(1), Art. 38(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 17(1), Art. 64-2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A disability pension is stopped for six years when its holder becomes entitled to disability compensation (障害補償) under Article 77 of the Labor Standards Act (労働基準法), a separate Act, for the same injury or illness, and a survivors' pension is stopped for six years from the death when survivors' compensation (遺族補償) under Article 79 of that Act is to be paid for it.(Art. 54(1), Art. 64(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For the time being, the employer of an applicable place of business (other than one of the national or a local government) whose part-time workers come under the insurance — because it opted them in from 1 October 2026, or as the employer-size limit for part-time workers falls, among other cases — may apply within two years to bear a larger share of the contributions on the standardized monthly remuneration of its insured part-time workers under 70 in grades 1 to 6. For 36 months the employer's share rises above half by a rate set for each grade — from 25% in grade 1 down to 2% in grade 6 for the first two years, and half those rates in the third — and the amount that rise represents is treated as not needing to be collected. A Cabinet Order may extend the grades covered and raise the rates, to at most 25%; supplementary provisions of Act No. 74 of 2025, which amended this Act, set these rules.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 22(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 22(1)(i), Suppl. Prov. Art. 22(1)(ii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 22(1)(iii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 22(1)(iv), Suppl. Prov. Art. 22(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 22(7), Suppl. Prov. Art. 22(8), Suppl. Prov. Art. 22(12), Suppl. Prov. Appended Table 2) (the provisions it rests on)
• A part-time worker who was already insured before 1 October 2016, when Act No. 62 of 2012, which amended this Act, added the part-time exclusion of Article 12(1)(v), and has stayed insured since, is not excluded by it for as long as they keep working at the same place of business.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 16(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 1(1)(v), Art. 12(1)(v)) (the provisions it rests on)

• The Government runs the employees' pension insurance; each category has its implementing organization (実施機関) — the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare for category I, the national and local public employees' mutual aid associations and their federations for categories II and III, and the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan (日本私立学校振興・共済事業団) for category IV — which decides each claim to a benefit (裁定) and keeps the insured person's record, with much of the Minister's work, from taking notifications and claims to collecting arrears, done by the Japan Pension Service (日本年金機構). For category I, joining and leaving take effect, as a rule, only when the Minister confirms them (確認), on the employer's notification, on the person's own request — which an insured or former insured person can make at any time — or on the Minister's own initiative. A category I insured or former insured person who thinks their record of joining, leaving or standardized remuneration is wrong or missing can ask the Minister to correct it, and the Minister decides after consulting the Social Security Council (社会保障審議会).(Art. 2(1), Art. 2-5(1), Art. 2-5(1)(i), Art. 2-5(1)(ii), Art. 2-5(1)(iii), Art. 2-5(1)(iv), Art. 33(1), Art. 28(1), Art. 100-4(1)(vii), Art. 100-4(1)(x), Art. 100-4(1)(xxix), Art. 100-10(1)(iv), Art. 18(1), Art. 18(2), Art. 18(4), Art. 31(1), Art. 28-2(1), Art. 28-4(1), Art. 28-4(2), Art. 28-4(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• An employer must notify the Minister when an employee joins or leaves the insurance — and when an employed person aged 70 or over starts or stops meeting the conditions the Ministry's Order sets — and of their remuneration and bonuses, must pass on to each employee the notices of decisions on them it receives, and must make the other notifications a Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Order requires. An employer that, without good reason, fails to make or falsifies such a notification of joining, leaving, pay or bonuses, fails to pass on a notice, does not pay contributions by the deadline in a demand letter, or refuses to hand over documents, answer an official's questions or allow an inspection, faces imprisonment (拘禁刑) of up to six months or a fine of up to 500,000 yen, and a company is fined as well as the person who acted; anyone else who refuses to answer, answers falsely or obstructs such an inspection faces up to six months' imprisonment or a fine of up to 300,000 yen. Failing to make or falsifying the other notifications is subject to a non-criminal fine (過料) of up to 100,000 yen, as is an insured person's failure to make the notifications required of them, or the failure of whoever must report a death under the Family Register Act (戸籍法) to notify a pensioner's death within 10 days.(Art. 27(1), Art. 29(1), Art. 29(2), Art. 98(1), Art. 98(2), Art. 98(4), Art. 100(1), Art. 102(1), Art. 102(1)(i), Art. 102(1)(ii), Art. 102(1)(iii), Art. 102(2), Art. 104(1), Art. 105(1), Art. 105(1)(i), Art. 105(1)(ii), Art. 105(1)(iii), Art. 103(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• When contributions or other amounts due go unpaid, the Minister must send a demand letter (督促状) with a deadline at least 10 days after it is sent, and if they are still unpaid by then may collect them by the procedure for delinquent national taxes (国税滞納処分) or ask the municipality to do so; contributions can also be collected in full before they are due when, among other cases, the payer is declared bankrupt, a company is dissolved or the workplace is closed. After a demand, a late-payment charge (延滞金) runs from the day after the due date at 14.6% a year — 7.3% for the first three months — except where, among other cases, the contribution is under 1,000 yen, there were unavoidable circumstances, or it is paid in full by the demand letter's deadline; for the time being, in any year in which the special base rate for delinquency tax (延滞税特例基準割合) under the Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation (租税特別措置法), a separate Act, is below 7.3%, the rates fall to that rate plus 7.3% and that rate plus 1% (at most 7.3%). Contributions rank after national and local taxes, and for categories II to IV the mutual aid Acts govern their collection instead.(Art. 86(1), Art. 86(2), Art. 86(4), Art. 86(5), Art. 85(1), Art. 85(1)(i), Art. 85(1)(ii), Art. 85(1)(iii), Art. 87(1), Art. 87(4), Suppl. Prov. Art. 17-14(1), Art. 88(1), Art. 87-2(1), Art. 89-2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where needed for a decision on insured status, remuneration, contributions or benefits, the Minister may order an employer to hand over documents and have officials enter the workplace, question those concerned and inspect books; the implementing organizations may order pensioners to hand in documents or answer questions about their family status, disability and the like, and may order someone whose pension, or an addition to a pension paid for them, turns on a disability to see a doctor they designate. Pensioners and their household must report and hand in what a Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Order requires. A pension can be stopped in whole or in part for refusing such an order, question or examination without good reason, and its payment held back for failing to report or hand in documents without good reason.(Art. 100(1), Art. 96(1), Art. 97(1), Art. 98(3), Art. 77(1), Art. 77(1)(i), Art. 77(1)(ii), Art. 78(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The implementing organization may collect all or part of a benefit obtained by deception or other wrongful means. No disability pension or allowance is paid for a disability caused on purpose, no survivors' pension goes to someone who on purpose killed the insured person, or someone who would have become a survivor, and a benefit may be withheld in whole or in part where a disability or death was caused by a deliberate crime, by gross negligence or by refusing medical instructions without good reason. No benefit is paid for insured months whose contributions can no longer be collected because the two-year time limit has run out — unless the employer's notification of joining, the person's request for confirmation or a request to correct the record was made before it ran out.(Art. 40-2(1), Art. 73(1), Art. 76(1), Art. 73-2(1), Art. 75(1), Art. 92(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A right to a benefit cannot be transferred, pledged or seized, except that an old-age pension can be seized in a procedure for delinquent national taxes (国税滞納処分), and no tax or other public levy may be charged on benefits other than the old-age pension. The right to collect contributions, or to have them refunded, expires two years after it can first be exercised, and a notice to pay or a demand letter restarts that period; the right to a benefit expires five years after the event that gives rise to it, each pension payment five years after the first day of the month following its payment month, and the five years on a pension do not run while it is wholly stopped.(Art. 41(1), Art. 41(2), Art. 92(1), Art. 92(3), Art. 92(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A decision of the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare on insured status, standardized remuneration or a benefit can be challenged by a request for review (審査請求) to a social insurance examiner (社会保険審査官), and the examiner's decision by a request for re-examination (再審査請求) to the Social Insurance Examination Committee (社会保険審査会); if the examiner has not decided within two months, the request may be treated as rejected, and a court action to cancel the decision can be brought only after the examiner has decided. Decisions on contributions and their collection, and the Minister's decisions on the lump-sum withdrawal payment, go directly to the Committee; decisions of the mutual aid bodies for categories II to IV go to the review boards of their own schemes, and decisions on a request to correct the record are not challenged this way. Once a decision on status or remuneration is final, it cannot be attacked again through a challenge to the benefit decision based on it.(Art. 90(1), Art. 90(2), Art. 90(3), Art. 90(5), Art. 91(1), Art. 91-3(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(6), Suppl. Prov. Art. 29(7)) (the provisions it rests on)