Employees' Pension Insurance Act

The insurance benefits under this Act are as follows; the government and the implementing organizations (excluding the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare; referred to as "the government and the implementing organizations" in Article 34, paragraph (1), Article 40, Article 79, paragraph (1) and paragraph (2), Article 81, paragraph (1), Article 84-5, paragraph (2) and Article 84-6, paragraph (2), and in Article 23-3 of the Supplementary Provisions) provide them:

employees' old-age pensions;

employees' disability pensions and disability allowances;

employees' pensions for surviving family.

The implementing organization issues a ruling confirming a person's right to receive insurance benefits at the request of the person who has the right to receive that insurance benefit (hereinafter referred to as the "beneficiary").

If, in compiling the current budget status and projections report pursuant to the provisions of Article 2-4, paragraph (1), it is projected not to be possible, over the course of the period subject to budget balancing, to maintain balance in the reserve funds being retained by the government or the implementing organizations in the budget for employees' pension insurance services as the reserve funds that are necessary for ensuring that no obstacles will arise in the payment of insurance benefits at the end of the period subject to budget balancing (meaning the reserve funds in the employees' pension section of the pension special account and the implementing organization reserves provided for in Article 79-2 ), the government is to adjust the amount of insurance benefits, and, by Cabinet Order, is to specify the fiscal year that will begin the period during which the amount of insurance benefits is subject to that adjustment (hereinafter referred to as the "term under adjustment").

If, in the current budget status and projections report, it is found to be no longer necessary to implement the adjustment under the preceding paragraph, the government, by Cabinet Order, is to specify the fiscal year that will end the term under adjustment.

If the government is compiling the current budget status and projections report during a term under adjustment, it must also compile a projection on the fiscal year in which the term under adjustment will end, and must publicly announce these together.

When a ruling confirming a person's right to receive insurance benefits is issued or if the amount of insurance benefits is revised, amounts of insurance benefits are rounded to the nearest yen, with amounts under 50 sen being rounded down and amounts equal to or greater than 50 sen but less than one yen being rounded up.

Beyond as provided for in the preceding paragraph, Cabinet Order prescribes numerical rounding for amounts of less than one yen that arise when amounts of insurance benefits are calculated.

The payment of a pension is to begin in the month following the month in which the reason that a pension is to be paid has occurred, and is to end in the month in which the right to payment ceases to exist.

If any reason for which payment is to be suspended has occurred, a pension is not paid during the period from the month following the month in which that reason has occurred until the month in which that reason ceases to exist.

Pensions are paid six times every year, in February, April, June, August, October, and December, in the amount that is due up to the previous month on each of these occasions; provided, however, pension that should have been paid in the previous payment month as well as pension for a term during which the right to payment has ceased to exist or payment has been suspended is to be paid even if the month in question is not a payment month.

Payment amounts under the provisions of paragraph (3) of the preceding Article are to be rounded down to the nearest yen.

The total of all amounts discarded in the numerical rounding during the period from March of each year to February of the next year pursuant to the provisions of the preceding paragraph (rounded down to the nearest yen) is to be added to the amount of the pension paid in February.

If the beneficiary of insurance benefits has died and there are insurance benefits that should have been paid to the deceased but that had not yet been paid thereto, the deceased's spouse, child or children, father and mother, grandchild or grandchildren, grandfather and grandmother, brothers and sisters, or relative within the third degree of kinship other than the foregoing persons, who was living off the same financial resources as the beneficiary at the time of the beneficiary's death, may request payment of unpaid insurance benefits in their own name.

In a case as referred to in paragraph (1), if the deceased beneficiary had not claimed the insurance benefits prior to death, the person prescribed in that paragraph may claim insurance benefits in their own name.

Cabinet Order provides for the order in which persons are to receive unpaid insurance benefits.

If there are two or more persons who are in the same place in the order in which persons are to receive unpaid insurance benefits, any claim made by one of them is deemed to have been made for all of them with regard to the entire amount, and any payment made to one of them is deemed to have been made to all of them.

Payment of pension benefits from an employees' disability pension is suspended during a period in which a beneficiary is eligible to receive other pension insurance benefits, or pension benefits under the National Pension Act (other than a basic disability pension paid based on the same grounds for payment as the employees' disability pension). Similarly, payment of pension benefits from an employees' old-age pension is suspended during the period in which a beneficiary is eligible to receive other pension insurance benefits (other than an employees' pension for surviving family) or pension benefits under the National Pension Act (other than an old-age basic pension, additional pension, or basic disability pension), and the payment of pension benefits from an employees' pension for surviving family is suspended during the period in which a beneficiary is eligible to receive other pension insurance benefits (other than an employees' old-age pension) or pension benefits under that Act (other than an old-age basic pension and additional pension, a basic disability pension, or a basic pension for surviving family to be paid based on the same grounds for payment as the employees' pension for surviving family in question).

Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraph, a beneficiary of pension insurance benefits whose payment is to be suspended pursuant to the provisions of that paragraph may apply for the suspension of payment to be lifted; provided, however, that this does not apply with regard to that person's other pension insurance benefits or pension benefits under the National Pension Act as referred to in the preceding paragraph, if these have been lifted in accordance with the provisions of the main clause of this or the following paragraph or provisions of other laws and regulations prescribed by Cabinet Order as being equivalent thereto.

If pension insurance benefits whose payment is to be suspended pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (1) will be paid for the month that includes the day on which the reason for the suspension of payment has occurred, an application as referred to in the preceding paragraph concerning those pension insurance benefits is deemed to have been filed at the time the reason occurred.

An application as referred to in paragraph (2) (or an application as referred to in paragraph (2), if it is deemed, pursuant to the provisions of the preceding paragraph, that such an application has been filed) may be prospectively withdrawn at any time.

At the request of the beneficiary, payment is suspended in full for pension insurance benefits (other than pension insurance benefits whose payment is suspended in full pursuant to other provisions of this Act or the provisions of other laws and regulations); provided, however, that if there is a partial suspension on payment of those benefits pursuant to other provisions of this Act or the provisions of other laws and regulations, payment of the amount not suspended thereby is suspended.

If a suspension on payment under other provisions of this Act or the provisions of other laws and regulations has been lifted for pension insurance benefits that are subject to a partial suspension on payment as referred to in the proviso to the preceding paragraph, the payment of pension insurance benefits as referred to in the main clause of the preceding paragraph is suspended in full.

The request under paragraph (1) may be prospectively withdrawn at any time.

Pension benefits whose payment is suspended pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (1) or paragraph (2) are deemed not to be subject to a suspension of payment as it concerns the application of the provisions of laws and regulations as provided for by Cabinet Order.

Cabinet Order provides for the means of suspending payment pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (1) and for other necessary particulars in connection with the application of the provisions of the preceding paragraphs.

If the right of the beneficiary of a first pension to receive benefits under the first pension is to cease to exist because the beneficiary has acquired a right to receive benefits under a second pension, but the first pension has been paid for any month following that in which the right to receive benefits under the first pension ceased to exist, the first pension that has been paid for that month is deemed to be a partial payment of the second pension; if the payment of benefits under a first pension is to be suspended and a second pension is to be paid to the same person, but a payment of monies from the first pension has been made for any month following that in which the right to receive benefits under the first pension ceased to exist or the reason to suspend payment of the first pension has occurred, the first pension that has been paid for that month is deemed to be a partial payment of the second pension.

If, in spite of the occurrence of a reason for suspending the payment of a pension, a pension has been paid for any period for which payment was to be suspended, the pension paid in that manner may be deemed to be partial payment of the pension to be paid thereafter. If, in spite of the occurrence of a reason to revise a pension by reducing its amount, a pension has been paid in an unreduced amount for any month following that in which the reason to reduce its amount occurred, the foregoing also applies to the part of the payment constituting the amount by which the pension was to have been reduced.

If the payment of pension benefits under the National Pension Act is to be suspended and pension insurance benefits (limited to the benefits paid by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare; the same applies hereinafter in this paragraph) are to be paid to the same person, but pension benefits under that Act have been paid for any month following that in which the reason for paying pension insurance benefits has occurred, the pension benefits under that Act that have been paid may be deemed to be a partial payment of pension insurance benefits.

If, in spite of the right to receive benefits having ceased to exist due to the death of the beneficiary of pension insurance benefits, the pension insurance benefits were overpaid due to payment for any month following the month that includes the date of the beneficiary's death, but there are pension insurance benefits that are to be paid to the person who is to perform obligations under the claim for the return of monies that has resulted from the overpayment (hereinafter referred to as a "claim for the return of monies"), the amount of payment under the pension insurance benefits may be appropriated as the amount of the claim for the return of monies that resulted from the overpayment, pursuant to Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

If an accident has been caused by the actions of a third party and the government or an implementing organization has paid insurance benefits, it acquires the beneficiary's right to claim compensation for loss or damage against the third party, up to the value of those benefits.

In a case as referred to in the preceding paragraph, if a beneficiary has been compensated for loss or damage by the third party for the same reason, the government or the implementing organization may withhold insurance benefits, up to the value of that compensation.

If a person has received insurance benefits by deception or other wrongful means, the implementing organization may collect from that person an amount equal to all or part of the benefits that the person received.

The right to receive insurance benefits may not be assigned, provided as collateral, or attached; provided, however, that this does not apply if the right to receive the employees' old-age pension is attached in collection proceedings for delinquent national tax (including a procedure to be enforced pursuant to the provisions on collection proceedings for delinquent national tax).

Taxes and other public charges may not be imposed upon money paid as insurance benefits; provided, however, that this does not apply to employees' old-age pensions.

An employees' old-age pension is paid to a person with an insured period if that person has come to fall under both of the following items:

being 65 years of age or older; or

having a total premium-paid period and premium-exemption period of 10 years or longer.