Job Discussion Forums

[philchlee]

If people who switch from company insurance to government health insurance are not tracked, then its possible that those who have not registered for insurance could get away with not paying any backpayments. Of course, this does not include resident tax.

Just keep the receipt of the travel insurance and argue your way through that you would agree to pay for the health insurance from fresh without paying any backpayments.

[Glenski]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[rai]

I know that you only have to back pay two years for pension, but is that also true for the health insurance payments?

Also, people often point out that you can get your pension payments back in one lump sum when you leave Japan, but that's not the whole story: You only get three year's of payments refunded. That means if you make pension payments for five years, then two years of payments will just be your gift to the Japanese government (on top of your regular residence taxes). Christ.

I'm curious how much of a financial hit the eikaiwa industry will take, or if it will all be squeezed out of the workers. Either way, I think a lot of people will be leaving in the next two years, and the big eikaiwas and dispatch companies are going to find it much harder to hire enough staff.

[philchlee]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[philchlee]

you only need to show proof of insurance coverage if you are living and working in japan. If you are on trips to visit your spouse, then it can be argued that you should not be liable for national insurance since you have a valid visa but do not stay in japan long enough.

This is only if you never registered to the national insurance after the company insurance has expired. If you have registered, then of course, you are liable.

It will be interesting to see what happens in 2010. Its all up to the officer in charge after all. Even if you have paid all your insurance and pension, they can always find grounds to disqualify your application. Similarly, they can equally decide to show terms of compassion if you can argue you did not break the rules.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

I think just about everybody interested in this thread is living and working in Japan. If you aren't living in Japan, then you aren't a resident of it.

The reason why this kind of law is written is to avoid it coming down to whatever buddy that you talk to decides to do.

[philchlee]

I have read posts of teachers who decided to leave for Korea/China to teach for a year and then return to Japan while their visa has not expired.

I think if shown proof of their passport, back payment requirements for insurance, pension and resident tax if necessary can be reconsidered. The main issue is working in Japan without paying to any insurance, pension or resident tax.

[tsunatuna]

Phew, finally read the whole thing.
I'm still confused, though.
I've been enrolled in the National Health Insurance from the beginning, no pension plan at all, though.
My next visa renewal is in February 2010, so that new law doesn't affect me yet then?

And if I've paid NHI, would they still want money from me for the last 2 years for pension?

[ultraman111]

I resided in Japan from around 99 - 2007. During that time I was insured only with a private insurance company......they signed up all the foriegn engrish teachers.....and they wernt too bad....pay 100% upfront and claim..


So does this new law mean that now, everyone must pay the ridiculously overpriced health insurance and pension..?

[Glenski]

Don't complain about something you are legally obligated to do. The fact that some bogus outfit skirted the system and didn't tell you is not their fault entirely. Go off that company's private plan and onto the regular one, and you will have to pay up to 2 years of backpayments.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Yeah... uh... they got rid of the tie between National Health Insurance and visa renewal months (maybe years?) ago. I don't think it ever actually happened. That's what happens when you live in a country in which the government ministers- including the Prime Minister- change jobs or quit in less than a year, almost every year and there are two main parties, the opposition one of which sees its main job as being two-fold: 1. Become the governing party and therefore 2. Ensure that the currently governing party is not able to do a single thing (in order to facilitate number 1) regardless of how much that actually harms the country (unless it's so obviously necessary that it will harm the party by NOT going along- like in the case of a massive earthquake followed by tsunami and nuclear disaster- then maybe THINK about going along with it, and agree after complaining about how the currently governing party dealt with it- without offering any alternatives).

This isn't an issue. It IS still the law that you are required to be enrolled in either National Health or your Japanese company's health insurance program, though.

Of course it's ALSO still the law that if you've worked for a dispatch company full-time at the same school for more than a year, then that school must hire you directly, and if your contract has been renewed 'several times' then you must be made a permanent employee (which means that if you worked for a single dispatch company at a single school for more than a year, your school should have made you a full-time direct hire in the second year, and if you've worked for a single dispatch company for more than three single year contracts- regardless of the number of schools that dispatch company has placed you in- then you should have been made a job-for-life employee of that dispatch company entitled to company insurance etc - so long as there is more than five people in the company or whatever the law says- just like any Japanese employee {unless dispatch companies are an exception to that law}).