Job Discussion Forums

Shigajet · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 1 Location: Shiga, Japan

Hi everyone. I've been reading some of the comments regarding the pension refund. So here's my situation:

I'm on the 5th and final year of the JET program. I'm also married to a Japanese national and we have a child. Needless to say, I'm looking for a teaching position after my JET contract is up in July.

At the same time, I'm also considering going back to Canada for a month and apply for my pension refund while my wife and child move to Osaka. I know that I should cash in while the going is good, but it seems it'll be more complicated than I thought.

Anyway, if I decide to go this route: have a job lined up for September, go back to Canada (after I turn in my gaijin card, pension book, visa, etc), apply for the pension refund and come back to Japan at the end of August - will it be worth it...and will I get the pension money if I'm out of Japan for only a month?

Like the topic says above, please advise.

Cheers!

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

moot point · Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 441

Exactly. It's not worth the effort to attempt to get that back.

In my case, I made a move and convinced the local tax board that I am paying into a pension fund in Canada (a complete lie) so I refuse to pay into the Japanese national pension scheme.

At my prior address the gov't officials were adamant that I join and gave me the pitch that the money you pay each month is for the elderly of today. Likewise, the youths of tomorrow will support you in the future. I didn't buy it.

So now neither my wife (Japanese) or I are paying into any kind of organised pensions. It is scary, though. I think for folks like us who are not contained within territorial borders really need to make a plan for ourselves since we cannot depend on any country when our working days come to a close.

As for ouselves, we've opted for offshore investments and I calculated what we'd need using CNN Money's "Moneyville" calculator (http://money.cnn.com/pf/saving/moneyville/)

Billy Chaka · Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Posts: 77

I completely disagree with the previous two posters. It's been a while, but when I left the JET Program, I made sure that I got the pension refund. While it may be true that you have to "prove" that you've permanently left Japan, as I recall all I had to do to "prove" it was provide an address in the USA. That's it. I'm absolutely sure that it was nothing complicated. I didn't even have a job when I got the money back. And it's totally worth the effort to get that money back. It was pretty easy to do, and it's a significant amount of money. I don't see any reason at all why the plan that you outlined in your post wouldn't work.