National Pension Act

The benefits under this Act (hereinafter simply referred to as "benefits") are as follows.

Old-age basic pension;

Disability basic pension;

Survivors' basic pension;

Additional pension, widow's pension, and death lump-sum payment.

The right to receive a benefit is decided by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare based on the claim of the person who holds that right (hereinafter referred to as a "person entitled to receive a benefit").

When preparing the current state and outlook of finances under the provisions of Article 4-3, paragraph (1), the government is, if it is expected that the finances of the National Pension program will be unable to maintain their balance over the financial equilibrium period while holding the reserve fund (meaning the reserve fund of the National Pension Account of the Pension Special Account; the same applies in Chapter V) necessary to prevent a disruption in the payment of benefits at the end of the financial equilibrium period, to adjust the amount of benefits that are pensions (excluding the additional pension) (hereinafter in this paragraph referred to as the "benefit amount"), and is to specify by Cabinet Order the fiscal year in which the period for adjusting the benefit amount (hereinafter referred to as the "adjustment period") begins.

When it is found, in the current state and outlook of finances, that the adjustment under the preceding paragraph is no longer necessary, the fiscal year in which the adjustment period ends is to be specified by Cabinet Order.

When the government prepares the current state and outlook of finances during the adjustment period, it must also prepare the outlook for the fiscal year in which the adjustment period ends, and must make this public together with it.

When deciding the right to receive a benefit that is a pension (hereinafter referred to as a "pension benefit"), or when revising the amount of a pension benefit, if a fraction of less than 50 sen arises in the amount of the pension benefit, it is to be rounded down, and if a fraction of 50 sen or more but less than 1 yen arises, it is to be rounded up to 1 yen.

Beyond what is prescribed in the preceding paragraph, the treatment of a fraction of less than 1 yen that arises when calculating the amount of a pension benefit is specified by Cabinet Order.

Payment of a pension benefit is to begin from the month following the month in which the day on which the grounds for payment arose falls, and is to end with the month in which the day on which the right was extinguished falls.

When grounds for suspending the payment of a pension benefit arise, payment is suspended for the portion from the month following the month in which the day on which the grounds arose falls, through the month in which the day on which the grounds ceased to exist falls. However, if these days fall within the same month, payment is not suspended.

A pension benefit is paid, in six installments each year, in February, April, June, August, October, and December, for the portion up to the month preceding each such month. However, a pension that should have been paid in the preceding payment month, or the pension for the installment in a case where the right has been extinguished or the payment of the pension has been suspended, is to be paid even in a month that is not a payment month.

When a fraction of less than 1 yen arises in the amount paid under the provisions of paragraph (3) of the preceding Article, it is to be rounded down.

The total of the amounts rounded down under the provisions of the preceding paragraph during the period from March each year to February of the following year (or, if a fraction of less than 1 yen arises in that total, the amount after that fraction is rounded down) is to be added to the pension amount for the payment month of that February.

If, where a vessel has sunk, capsized, been lost, or gone missing, it is unknown for three months whether a person who was actually on board the vessel at the time, or a person who was on board the vessel and went missing while the vessel was navigating, is alive or dead, or if the death of such a person becomes clear within three months but the time of death is unknown, then, for the purposes of applying the provisions concerning the payment of a benefit for which death is the ground for payment, that person is presumed to have died on the day on which the vessel sank, capsized, was lost, or went missing, or on the day on which the person went missing. The same applies where an aircraft has crashed, been lost, or gone missing, and it is unknown for three months whether a person who was actually on board the aircraft at the time, or a person who was on board the aircraft and went missing while the aircraft was navigating, is alive or dead, or where the death of such a person becomes clear within three months but the time of death is unknown.

For the purposes of applying the provisions concerning the payment of a benefit for which death is the ground for payment, relating to a person who is deemed to have died as a result of receiving an adjudication of disappearance, the term "date of death" in Article 37, Article 37-2, Article 49, paragraph (1), Article 52-2, paragraph (1), and Article 52-3, paragraph (1) is deemed to be replaced with "the day on which the person went missing", and the term "at the time of death" is deemed to be replaced with "at the time the person went missing". However, this does not apply to the application of these provisions relating to the familial relationship, age, and state of disability of a person entitled to receive a benefit, or of a person who is a requirement for the payment of a benefit or is the subject of an addition to its amount.

Where a person entitled to receive a pension benefit has died, if there is a pension benefit that should have been paid to the deceased person but has not yet been paid to that person, the spouse, child, parent, grandchild, grandparent, or sibling of that person, or a relative within the third degree of kinship other than these persons, who shared living expenses with that person at the time of that person's death, may, in their own name, claim payment of that unpaid pension.

In the case referred to in the preceding paragraph, if the deceased person was a person entitled to receive a survivors' basic pension, a child of the insured person or person who was an insured person that, at the time of that person's death, constituted a requirement for the payment of that survivors' basic pension or was the subject of an addition to its amount, is deemed to be a child as prescribed in that paragraph.

In the case referred to in paragraph (1), if the deceased person entitled to receive a benefit had not claimed that pension before death, a person prescribed in that paragraph may, in their own name, claim that pension.

The order of priority of persons entitled to receive an unpaid pension is specified by Cabinet Order.

When there are two or more persons of the same order of priority who are entitled to receive an unpaid pension, a claim made by one of them is deemed to have been made by all of them for the full amount, and a payment made to one of them is deemed to have been made to all of them.

A survivors' basic pension or a widow's pension is, while the person entitled to receive it is able to receive another pension benefit (excluding the additional pension) or an insurance benefit that is a pension under the Employees' Pension Insurance Act (excluding one paid on the same ground for payment as that pension benefit; the same applies hereinafter in this Article), suspended for that period. The same applies to the old-age basic pension, in a case where the person entitled to receive the old-age basic pension is able to receive another pension benefit (excluding the additional pension) or an insurance benefit that is a pension under that Act (excluding the survivors' employees' pension), and to the disability basic pension, in a case where the person entitled to receive the disability basic pension is able to receive another pension benefit (excluding the additional pension).

A person entitled to receive a pension benefit whose payment is to be suspended under the provisions of the preceding paragraph may, notwithstanding the provisions of that paragraph, apply for the suspension of payment to be lifted. However, this does not apply where the suspension of payment of the other pension benefit or the insurance benefit that is a pension under the Employees' Pension Insurance Act prescribed in that paragraph relating to that person has been lifted under the main clause of this paragraph, the following paragraph, or a provision specified by Cabinet Order as equivalent to these under other laws and regulations.

With respect to a pension benefit whose payment is to be suspended under the provisions of paragraph (1), if payment is made for the portion of the month in which the day on which the grounds for suspending payment arose falls, the application under the preceding paragraph relating to that pension benefit is deemed to have been made at the time those grounds arose.

The application under paragraph (2) (including that application in a case where it is deemed, under the provisions of the preceding paragraph, to have been made) may be withdrawn at any time, with effect for the future.

Payment of the full amount of a pension benefit (excluding a pension benefit whose payment is suspended in full under another provision of this Act or a provision of other laws and regulations) is suspended upon the request of the person entitled to receive it. However, if payment of part of the amount is suspended under another provision of this Act or a provision of other laws and regulations, payment of the amount of the part not suspended is suspended.

With respect to a pension benefit whose payment of part of its amount is suspended as referred to in the proviso to the preceding paragraph, when the suspension of payment under another provision of this Act or a provision of other laws and regulations is lifted, payment of the full amount of the pension benefit referred to in the main clause of the preceding paragraph is suspended.

The request under paragraph (1) may be withdrawn at any time, with effect for the future.

A pension benefit whose payment is suspended under the provisions of paragraph (1) or paragraph (2) is, for the purposes of applying a provision of laws and regulations specified by Cabinet Order, deemed not to have had its payment suspended.

The method of the suspension of payment under the provisions of paragraph (1), and other matters necessary for applying the provisions of the preceding paragraphs, are specified by Cabinet Order.

Where the right of a person entitled to receive Pension B to receive it is extinguished because the person entitled to receive Pension B has acquired the right to receive Pension A, or where, for the same person, payment of Pension B is to be suspended and Pension A is to be paid, if payment of Pension B has been made for the portion from the month following the month in which the day on which the right to receive Pension B was extinguished, or the day on which the grounds for suspending payment of Pension B arose, falls, that paid Pension B is deemed to be a payment on account of Pension A.

When, notwithstanding that grounds for suspending payment of a pension have arisen, the pension has been paid for the portion of the period for which it should have been suspended, the pension so paid may be deemed to be a payment on account of the pension that should be paid thereafter. The same applies to the portion that should have been reduced, of a disability basic pension or a survivors' basic pension, in a case where, notwithstanding that grounds have arisen for revising the disability basic pension or the survivors' basic pension by reducing it, the disability basic pension or the survivors' basic pension has been paid, for the portion from the month following the month in which the day on which those grounds arose falls, in the amount without the reduction.

Where, for the same person, payment of an insurance benefit that is a pension under the Employees' Pension Insurance Act (limited to one paid by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare; the same applies hereinafter in this paragraph) is to be suspended and a pension benefit is to be paid, if payment of the insurance benefit that is a pension under that Act has been made for the portion from the month following the month in which the day on which the grounds for paying the pension benefit arose falls, the insurance benefit that is a pension under that Act so paid may be deemed to be a payment on account of the pension benefit.

Where, notwithstanding that the right to receive a pension benefit has been extinguished because the person entitled to receive the pension benefit has died, an erroneous payment of that pension benefit has been made for the portion from the month following the month in which the day of that death falls, if there is a pension benefit to be paid to a person who is to perform the obligation pertaining to the claim for repayment relating to that erroneous payment (hereinafter in this Article referred to as a "claim for repayment"), the amount of the payment of that pension benefit may be applied to the amount of the claim for repayment arising from that erroneous payment, as specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Where a disability or death, or an accident that was the direct cause thereof, has arisen from the act of a third party, if the government has made a benefit payment, the government acquires, to the extent of the value of that benefit, the right that the person entitled to receive the benefit holds against the third party to claim damages.

In the case referred to in the preceding paragraph, if the person entitled to receive the benefit has received damages from the third party for the same cause, the government is relieved of its obligation to make the benefit payment, to the extent of that value.