Job Discussion Forums

[cafebleu]

I was interested in reading the replies to the healthcare thread and thought I would like to ask a question about the pension system. I apologise in advance for sounding so ignorant but I worked full time at a school where I was kept in the dark about many things.

I worked about 30 hours of teaching and maybe 10 hours of non teaching activities per week - lesson planning, textbook buying, liaising with the manager and students etc. My salary was 250,000 yen per month and 30,000 yen was taken out for tax. My tax return was never more than 25,000 yen.

I paid my own health insurance but I am wondering if some of my salary`s tax deduction actually was spent on paying into a pension fund? When I quit that job - completely legitimately after giving due notice and letting my contract run out - I was told nothing about such payments. I was also subjected to dodgy behaviour such as the manager not giving me a letter of release. However, I obtained it by leaving firm messages on her answering machine.

Yet I am still in the dark about pension payments. The manager lied to me about so many things that I have lost track of them. What is the Japanese term for pension payments? I had a lot of papers from my time at that school but the manager trashed some papers on the grounds that I was not packing up quick enough. I don`t think she was deliberately trying to destroy papers from a pension fund (if I ever had them) but I need to know just what is the deal about pension payments.

Is it likely that 30,000 taken out for tax each month actually included a payment into a pension fund?

[easyasabc]

[cafebleu]

Yes, I am a big fan of the Style Council, especially Paul Weller! Paris Match is my all-time favourite love song!

About the money - I suspected as much. It always amuses me when Japan honeymooners or the established who have been treated honestly in their job/s like to dismiss honest or critical or questioning posters as negative. However, I was cheated out of money in any number of small ways at that school so it would not surprise me if the money found its way into the manager`s pocket. I would still like to know what the official title for pension payment is in Japanese. Then I could try and find some kind of documentation if I have it.

Thanks.

[Glenski]

If you had to pay for your own health insurance, you can pretty much bet that the employer not only used a loophole to get out of doing that for you, but he also didn't contribute to any pension fund. Foreigners who work "full-time" don't always get FT beneits. Depends on the number of hours you are listed as working. If it's less than what the Japanese system is for real FT labor, the employer doesn't have to help with insurance or pension. Sounds like this is what may have happened to you.

[easyasabc]

[Iwantmyrightsnow]

[cafebleu]

Thank you for your replies, all of which were informative. I think I can conclude that I was taken for a ride there, too - I suspect the manager was pocketing some of that so called tax money. It was a small conversation school and every year the manager did all the tax stuff - I just went along as the token employee with her to the tax office.

I`d love nothing more than to turn up on her doorstep and ask some hard questions but it is a little late. I also think it is an example of cutting losses necessarily in Japan. Sometimes it is not in our best interests to come on strongly about such matters. I suppose I should count my blessings that I now work for employers who are transparent about everything to do with my salary and associated matters.

[G Cthulhu]