国民年金法（こくみんねんきんほう）

In this Act, "premium-paid period" means the period obtained by combining: the insured period as an insured person prescribed in Article 7, paragraph (1), item (i), relating to a premium that has been paid (including a premium collected under the provisions of Article 96; but excluding a premium for which, of the amount that a person has been made not required to pay part of under the provisions of Article 90-2, paragraphs (1) through (3), the remaining amount has been paid or collected; the same applies hereinafter) and relating to a premium that a person has been made not required to pay under the provisions of Article 88-2 or Article 88-3, paragraph (1) or (2); the insured period as an insured person prescribed in Article 7, paragraph (1), item (ii); and the insured period as an insured person prescribed in item (iii) of that paragraph.

Payment of a premium under the preceding paragraph may be made only for a month in which the premium in the amount specified in paragraph (3) of the preceding Article was paid (excluding a month in which the premium is deemed to have been paid under Article 94, paragraph (4)), or for each month in the period relating to a premium not required to be paid under Article 88-2 or Article 88-3, paragraph (1) or (2).

An insured person is not required to pay the premium for the period from the month preceding the month that contains the expected date of childbirth (in a case specified by Ministerial Order, the date of childbirth; referred to as the "expected date of childbirth" in paragraph (1) of the following Article , Article 106, paragraph (1), and Article 108, paragraph (2)) (hereinafter in this Article referred to as the "month of expected childbirth") (in the case of a multiple pregnancy, the third month before the month of expected childbirth) to the second month following the month of expected childbirth.

Where an insured person to whom the provisions of the preceding Article applied raises a child in connection with the childbirth referred to in that Article, the premium for the period from the month containing the day on which three months have passed from the expected date of childbirth until the month preceding the month containing the day following the day on which twelve months have passed from the expected date of childbirth (or, if the child has died, or an event specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as an event on account of which the insured person has come to no longer raise the child has arisen, by the day preceding that day, the day following the day on which that event arose) (excluding a period during which the provisions of that Article apply in connection with a child other than that child) is not required to be paid.

An insured person (excluding an insured person prescribed in the preceding paragraph) is not required to pay the premium for the period from the month containing the day on which that person came to raise that person's child (including a child for whom the insured person has requested a family court, under Article 817-2, paragraph (1) of the Civil Code (Act No. 89 of 1896), for the formation of the special adoption relationship prescribed in that paragraph between that child and the insured person (limited to a case where the domestic relations case pertaining to that request is pending in a court) and whom the insured person actually takes care of, a child entrusted, under Article 27, paragraph (1) (limited to the part pertaining to item (iii)) of the Child Welfare Act (Act No. 164 of 1947), to an insured person who is a foster parent for adoption prescribed in Article 6-4, item (ii) of that Act, and a person entrusted, as specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, to an insured person specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as a person equivalent to these insured persons; hereinafter the same applies in this paragraph, Article 106, paragraph (1), and Article 108, paragraph (2)) until the month preceding the month containing the day following the day on which that child reaches one year of age (or, if the child has died, or an event specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as an event on account of which the insured person has come to no longer raise the child has arisen, by the day preceding the day on which the child reaches one year of age, the day on which that event arose) (excluding a period during which the provisions of the preceding Article apply in connection with a child other than that child).

The amount equivalent to the premiums that are not required to be paid under the preceding two paragraphs is to be, as specified by Cabinet Order, made up for by the child and child-rearing support contribution collected by the government under the Act on Support for Children and Child-rearing (Act No. 65 of 2012).

When an insured person (excluding an insured person to whom Article 88-2, the preceding Article , paragraphs (1) and (2), and Article 90-2, paragraphs (1) through (3), apply) comes to fall under any of the following items, the insured person is not required to pay the premium, excluding a premium already paid, for the period from the month preceding the month that contains the day on which the person came to fall under that item to the month that contains the day on which the person ceases to fall under it.

The provisions of the Civil Code (Act No. 89 of 1896) concerning periods apply mutatis mutandis to the calculation of a period prescribed in this Act or an order based on this Act, except where otherwise provided in this Act.

The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare may, when the Minister finds it necessary, in connection with a disposition concerning the status as an insured person or a premium, order an insured person to submit documents concerning the expected date of childbirth, documents concerning the state of care of the child, documents concerning the state of assets or income of the insured person, the insured person's spouse or head of household, or a person who had been any of these, or other articles, or have the relevant official ask questions of the insured person.

The Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare may, when the Minister finds it necessary in connection with a disposition concerning a pension benefit or a premium, request a government agency, a mutual aid association, etc., a mutual aid association prescribed in Article 28 of the Supplementary Provisions of the Employees' Pension Insurance Act, or a health insurance society to allow inspection of necessary documents or to provide materials, or request a bank, trust company, or other institution, or the employer of an insured person, or another person concerned, to make a report, concerning: the state of assets or income of a person entitled to receive a benefit, an insured person, or the insured person's spouse or head of household; the state of payment to a person entitled to receive a benefit of an insurance benefit paid as a pension under the Employees' Pension Insurance Act, or of a benefit specified by Cabinet Order prescribed in Article 36-2, paragraph (1), item (i); the expected date of childbirth of an insured person, or the state of the care of the child; or the name and address, the individual number, and other matters of a person entitled to receive, or a person who had been entitled to receive, a benefit specified by Cabinet Order prescribed in Article 89, paragraph (1), item (i), a person who receives, or received, assistance specified by Ministerial Order prescribed in item (ii) of that paragraph (excluding assistance specified by Ministerial Order), a person who is admitted, or had been admitted, to a facility specified by Ministerial Order prescribed in item (iii) of that paragraph (excluding a facility specified by Ministerial Order), a person who receives assistance specified by Ministerial Order prescribed in Article 90, paragraph (1), item (ii), or a dependent under the provisions of the Acts listed in Article 7, paragraph (6), item (i) and items (iv) through (vi) of the Long-Term Care Insurance Act (Act No. 123 of 1997).