Like many foreigners working and living in Japan, surely you may have heard or seen the word “nenkin – 年金” (pension) many times. Except for international students, everyone who works in Japan is required to pay a pension. For those of you who do not intend to apply for a permanent resident Visa in Japan, this payment is quite expensive and unnecessary because eventually you will come back to your home countries. However, did you know that we can get a part of this money back with just a few simple procedures?

 

Conditions for claiming your refund:

 

Been paying Nenkin for over 6 months and living in Japan for more than 3 years.
Being outside of Japan: Before leaving Japan, it is mandatory to go to the City Hall to cut your temporary residence or wait until your Visa expires to complete the procedure. If your Visa hasn’t expired yet and you want to leave Japan soon, you have to eliminate your Japanese address to be eligible to withdraw from the Pension system.
Less than 24 months from the date you actually leave Japan. (If you return to your home country while your visa is still valid, it will be 24 months from the date your Visa expires)
Never received Pension payments before (including disability benefits).

 

Required documents:

 

Application for refund of pension.
Copy of your passport including Personal Information Page and Visa Page (with the date of departure and the customs stamp).
Copy of Pension handbook – Information Page.
Paper contains information about your bank account in your home countries. (enclosed with a certification stamp from the bank and the account must be used for foreign currency transactions)

 

NOTE: The procedure to receive your refund can only be done after you have returned to your home country, so after filling and checking these documents carefully, you can put them in one envelope and send it to the following address: ЈАРАN РЕNSION ЅЕRVІСЕ. Address: 3-5-24 Tаkаіԁо-nіѕһі, Ѕugіnаmі-ku, Тоkуо 168-8505 ЈАРАN.

 

About 4-6 months later, you will receive a notice of transferring Pension refund to your bank account. If your application lacks one of those necessary information, it will be returned.

 

Procedure to claim Pension refund:

 

Step 1: Download and print the Lump-sum Withdrawal Payment Claim Form via the following link (the form is on page 15).

 

https://www.nenkin.go.jp/international/japanese-system/withdrawalpayment/payment.files/A.pdf

 

Step 2: Fill in required information.

 

Step 3: Send the form (including all the necessary documents mentioned above) to the Japanese Pension Service.

 

Important notes when claiming your refund:

 

Pension is a personal matter, you may receive support from your company (if any). Otherwise, you have to decide and handle everything by yourself.
Bank account in your home country to receive your refund must be a USD account.
Nowadays there are many companies to help you with the Lump-sum Withdrawal Payment Claim procedure. You can learn more about these services on the Internet or if you have relatives living in Japan, you can also ask them to help you.
The second time you receive the refund, it can only be received by accounts of banks in Japan. This is not possible for those who have left Japan. Authorization for a tax administration representative (所得税・消費税の納税管理人 – しょとくぜい・しょうひぜいののうぜいかんりにん) is required at the Tax Office near where you used to live before leaving Japan.

 

The procedure of claiming Pension refund for the 2nd time:

 

Step 1: Authorize the person as your tax representative. It can be an intermediary company or ask someone you know.

 

Step 2: Prepare necessary documents including:

 

Power of attorney (委任状). Download here 
Declaration Form of your tax representative (納税管理人届出書). Download here
Notice of Lump-sum Withdrawal Payment Determination (脱退一時金支給決定通知書) received when withdrawing the first refund.

 

Step 3: The representative will submit these documents to the local tax office. To search for the local tax office, visiting the homepage of the National Tax Agency HERE

 

Depending on the location, the time to receive your refund may be different.

 

Instructions for declaring tax representatives:

 

Section 1: Taxpayer information:

 

Date of declaration.
Tax payer’s Japanese address and phone number.
Full name.
Personal number.
Full name of the tax representative.
Enter the type of tax to be paid on behalf of the representative (in this case, it is personal income tax – 所得税).
Tax payment place before returning home.

 

Section 2: Representative information:

 

住所又は居所: Address and phone number of the representative.
氏名又は名称及び代表者氏名: The representative’s name.
届出者との続柄: Relation with the declarant.
職業又は事業内容: Occupation or Business details.
納税管理人を定めた理由: Reason for appointing the representative, write: 源泉徴収税の還付金の請求.
その他参考事項: This section is used to specify more clearly the purpose of appointing a representative (can be left blank).

 

Notice of entitlement: Your Lump-sum Withdrawal Payment