①A person who intends to apply for a retirement allowance mutual aid contract (excluding a person who currently has concluded a retirement allowance mutual aid contract for the employees that person employs) may, when making the application, file a request to have the number of months of the past service period (if that number of months exceeds 120 months, 120 months) of an employee who is to become a covered employee (excluding a covered employee under a retirement allowance mutual aid contract that is the subject of a request under Article 31-2, paragraph (1) or Article 31-3, paragraph (1)) aggregated with the number of months of paid premiums under that retirement allowance mutual aid contract (the "past service period" being the period obtained by excluding, from the period of continuous employment from the day on which the employee was hired by the person intending to make that application to the day preceding the day on which the retirement allowance mutual aid contract takes effect, the period specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare out of the period during which the employee was a person listed in the items of Article 3, paragraph (3) (where the period so obtained has a fraction of less than one year, the fraction is to be discarded); the same applies hereinafter).

②A request under the provisions of the preceding paragraph must be made for all persons who are to become covered employees under a retirement allowance mutual aid contract at the same time as the application for the retirement allowance mutual aid contract is made (excluding a covered employee under a retirement allowance mutual aid contract that is the subject of a request under Article 31-2, paragraph (1) or Article 31-3, paragraph (1)).

③A request under the provisions of paragraph (1) must be made by specifying the monthly premium for the past service period that forms the basis for calculating the amount of the retirement allowance under Article 29, paragraph (1), item (i) (hereinafter referred to as the "past service monthly amount").

④The past service monthly amount must be specified, in consideration of the trend of monthly premiums and other factors, from among the amounts specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in accordance with the categories prescribed in Article 4, paragraph (3) (which are to be amounts of 5,000 yen (or, for a short-time covered employee, 2,000 yen) or more), within a range not exceeding the monthly premium on the day on which the retirement allowance mutual aid contract for that covered employee takes effect.

⑤The past service monthly amount specified under the provisions of paragraph (3) may not be changed after the Organization has accepted the application for the retirement allowance mutual aid contract for that covered employee.

①A mutual aid policyholder that has filed a request under the provisions of paragraph (1) of the preceding Article must, for each month for which premiums have been paid for the covered employee concerned in that request, from the month containing the day on which the retirement allowance mutual aid contract took effect through the month in which five years (or, where the past service period is less than five years, the number of years of that past service period) elapse (or, where the covered employee retires before that month or the retirement allowance mutual aid contract is cancelled before that month, the month containing the day of retirement or the day of cancellation of the retirement allowance mutual aid contract), pay the monthly past service premium, being the amount obtained by multiplying the past service monthly amount by the rate obtained by adding, to the rate specified by Cabinet Order according to the number of years of the past service period, the rate determined by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare in consideration of the cost of paying the amount provided for in Article 10, paragraph (2), item (iii), (b) out of the amount of the retirement allowance under Article 29, paragraph (1), item (i), by the last day of the following month (or, for the past service premium for the month containing the day on which the retirement allowance mutual aid contract took effect, by the last day of the month after the following month).

②If a mutual aid policyholder that has filed a request under the provisions of paragraph (1) of the preceding Article fails to pay past service premiums for a certain number of months or more specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (excluding a case where there is a justifiable reason specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare), it may not pay past service premiums from that time on.

③The retirement allowance mutual aid book delivered under the provisions of Article 7, paragraph (3) to a mutual aid policyholder that has filed a request under the provisions of paragraph (1) of the preceding Article must also be capable of showing the status of payment of past service premiums.

④The provisions of Article 22, paragraph (2) and Articles 24 through 26 apply mutatis mutandis to the payment of past service premiums. In this case, the phrase "Article 22, paragraph (1)" in Article 26, paragraph (1) is deemed to be replaced with "Article 28, paragraph (1)".

①Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 10, paragraph (2), the amount of the retirement allowance when a covered employee under a retirement allowance mutual aid contract for which past service premiums have been paid (excluding a covered employee falling under the following paragraph) retires is to be the greater of the following amounts:

②The payment of a retirement allowance when a covered employee under a retirement allowance mutual aid contract for which past service premiums have been paid, and for whom past service premiums have not been paid for some of the months from the month containing the day on which the retirement allowance mutual aid contract took effect through the month in which five years have elapsed (or, where the past service period is less than five years, the number of years of that past service period), retires is as provided in the following items.

③The payment of a cancellation refund when a retirement allowance mutual aid contract for which past service premiums have been paid is cancelled is as provided in the following items.