Job Discussion Forums

[Apsara]

There is no way the payments are 180,000 yen a month unless you are earning an excellent salary, close to a million yen a month- 180,000 would be about 70% of most eikaiwa teachers' income! I thought the total payments were closer to 30,000 or 10%.

[Ryu Hayabusa]

Yeah, the 180 000 yen should be 18 000 yen. I still get mixed up from when I was in Korea where the won used to be 1000 to the Canadian dollar. So 180 000 won would have equaled 180 CAD.

Sorry, my bad.

[Ryu Hayabusa]

So, Glenski, looks like you owe me (or someone) 10 yen because, unfortunately, Kokumin Kenko Hoken and Kokumin Nenkin go hand in hand here in Osaka. I went to the ward office today and spoke to two people. At first, I spoke to one of the tellers and asked to sign up for Kokumin Kenko Hoken. He gave me a red form and on the top left of the form, I picked out the kanji for Kokumin Kenko Hoken but underneath I also saw the kanji for year (nen) and money (kin). The application form is for both NHI and National Pension. There is no form for just NHI.

I get the feeling that this might be a city-by-city thing. Someone at work today suggested it might be ward-by-ward but I saw the kanji for Osaka city on the sheet and there was no mention of any ward. Another person told me that Kobe is different and that enrolling in Kokumin Nenkin is optional there.

I looked at the form in the ward office and I asked the teller if Kokumin Kenko Hoken and Kokumin Nenkin could be separated and he said, "No. They are together." As I was about to leave, one of my co-workers came in. She speaks Japanese very well so I got her to ask him again in Japanese so I could be sure. He gave the same answer.

It sucks, but apparently that's how it is in Osaka.

Now I have to decide between going with Shakai Hoken or breaking the law and just going with private insurance.

Tomorrow, if I ask ECC to enroll me, when will the government process me? When would my coverage start?

[southofreality]

[Glenski]

If it's ward by ward or city by city, I will split the difference and fork out 5 yen, not 10. I have friends in Sapporo on kokumin kenko hoken and who aren't forced to pay into the pension plan, too.

I thought ECC was forced by the union to offer shakai hoken to all of its employees recently, and if memory serves, they agreed but only if the employees were willing to work 30 hours per week (or more). Half an hour more than the usual, so it seemed reasonable for someone who wanted shakai hoken. What's your situation?

[Ryu Hayabusa]

@Glenski

Yeah, it's true. ECC was forced by the union to offer employees the choice of getting enrolled in Shakai Hoken but only if they agreed to work an extra 30 minutes per week. I asked my trainers about it and they said that it would amount to extra prep time. A person can stay as a 29.5 hour/week employee if they want.

I'm still thinking about it. The union fought long and hard for me to even be able to have the choice of getting signed up for Shakai Hoken. Signing up for NHI and national pension or Shakai Hoken would be another thing that ties me to Japan and would make it harder for the Canadian gov't to tax me on my income here. But, on the other hand, if I stay or anything less than 12 months, neither NHI + Nat'l Pension or Shakai Hoken would be worth the cost to me. But, do I break the law and risk signing up for some private insurance that might leave me high and dry if something really terrible happens? Does anyone know of any good private insurance companies?

Glenski, what do you mean by my situation? I'm happy to answer, but I just want a little clarification.

[Khyron]

[Glenski]

situation = whether you work 29.5 hours per week or more, and whether you live by yourself.

Stupid and yet still interesting that ECC claims a half an hour more work requires additional (unpaid) prep time, no? What possibly do they think those 1800 seconds need prep for? I'm serious!

[Ryu Hayabusa]

@Khyron

No worries, man. Thanks for replying.

@Glenski

Sorry. My explanation was poor. The trainers told us that if we were enrolled in Shakai Hoken, we would have to work 30-hour weeks. I asked them what the difference was between a 29.5 hour and a 30-hour work week and they said, "Nothing really. You could use the extra half hour for prep." I didn't mean that they said that the extra half hour of work would require more prep time. The extra 30 minutes of office time a week should be used to prep for our other classes.

About my situation, I'm still in training. I'm sure that I would be doing a little extra unpaid prep for my first few weeks which would bump me over the 29.5 hour mark. Whether or not I go with the 30-hour work week depends on if I get enrolled in Shakai Hoken. I live alone, though I might move in with a friend in a month or so.

[southofreality]

[Glenski]

[Ryu Hayabusa]

Sorry, Glenski, I'm not sure. But here's what I think.

The reason why I was told earlier in training that there's not much difference between 29.5-hour and 30-hour work weeks is that a person is going to be in an ECC school for more than the required 5.5 or 6 hours anyways. Let's say a person's schedule looked like this (slightly modified from the ECC website):

DAY SCHOOL SHIFT TIME HOURS
MONDAY NAMBA 3:30-9:30 6
TUESDAY TENNOJI 3:00-9:00 6
WEDNESDAY OFF
THURSDAY NAMBA 4:05-10:05 6
FRIDAY NAMBA 4:15-9:45 5.5
SATURDAY TENNOJI 12:00-6:00 6
SUNDAY OFF 29.5


Sorry about my formatting.

So, the person would go into any given school about 15-30 minutes early to prepare for kids lessons ex. set up flash cards, prepare materials, etc. They would punch in right when they got in. The amount of classes is the same on either schedule, but since I would think almost all teachers go in a little early each day anyway, there is no real difference which schedule you're on.

If the teacher punches in exactly at the times they should start and end their shifts, perhaps they'd be expected to stay a half hour later on any given day or come in 30 minutes early on one day.

[Glenski]

SIx straight hours of work is permitted by law, in case you didn't know. However, according to labor laws...

Article 34. An employer shall provide rest periods
during working hours of at least 45 minutes in the event
that working hours exceed 6 hours and of at least one hour
in the event that working hours exceed 8 hours.
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/laborinfo/library/documents/llj_law1-rev.pdf

So, it's interesting to me that you work 6-hour days, yet they still expect you so squeeze in 30 minutes during the week. It would be interesting to know how they feel about this mandated rest period.

Thanks for the update. Bottom line: you have a time card to punch in/out.

[Ryu Hayabusa]

Very late update to what I wrote almost a year ago.

@Glenski and Khyron

You were right. While the Yodogawa ward office in Osaka would like people to enrol in both Kokumin Hoken and Kokumin Nenkin, I was able to just sign up for health insurance. I had made it clear to the teller way back in September that I didn't want to be enrolled in Kokumin Nenkin and he was reluctant to oblige at first, but I was adamant and he eventually gave up.

Maybe it is case by case and ward office by ward office. But, I didn't have to enrol. How do you want your 10 yen, Glenski?

[Glenski]

Keep it, my friend. I would think it is the Osaka office that owes me, not you. Consider it another "stimulus payment".