Since 1st July 2019 Japan Immigration Bureau has revised the necessary documents to apply for Permanent Residence status. You must submit documents to prove that you have paid into Public pension and paid required fees for Public medical insurance for the past 2 years. Meaning if you are not paying into these, your permanent resident application will be denied with a high possibility.
There are two types of Public pension and two types of Public medical insurance.
1. In general if you are a Full-time employee you are eligible to be enrolled in the Employee’s Health Insurance program and the Employee’s Welfare Pension Insurance program. In this case your company provides you a health insurance card and they deduct medical insurance fees and pension fees from your monthly salary and they have the responsibility to pay these fees to the government.
2. If you are a part time employee, a student or not working then you can enroll in the National Health Insurance program and the National Pension Program. In this case you receive your health insurance card from the municipal office where you have registered your residency. You need to pay medical insurance fees and Pension fees by yourself. As Immigration will strictly check whether you have paid these fees without any delay, any delay could be used as justification to deny your permanent resident application.
Necessary documents for a Full-time employee
In the case you are a Full-time employee and you have enrolled in Employee’s Health Insurance program and the Employee’s Welfare Pension Insurance program consecutively for past 2 years, you can submit:
1. Printout of “Monthly records of your Pension” which you can download it from “NENKIN NET system” (I will explain about this system later).
2. Copy of your health insurance card.
The key note is that you have been “consecutively” enrolled for past 2 years. For example if you change your Full-time job during the past 2 years and if there is a employment gap between your previous job and new job, during this gap you are not enrolled in Employee’s Health Insurance program nor the Employee’s Welfare Pension Insurance program, meaning in order to meet the criteria of 2 consecutive years, you must enroll in the National Health Insurance program and the National Pension Program and pay these fees by yourself in order to cover this employment gap. If not, your application will be denied.
Necessary documents for a non full-time employee
In the case where you have enrolled in the National Health Insurance program and the National Pension Program for past 2 years, the following are necessary documents.
1. Documents to prove that you have paid into the National Pension on time for past 2 years (such as receipts or copy of your bank book)→If you are not keeping these or some are missing, submit a Printout of “Monthly records of your Pension” which you can download from “NENKIN NET system”. You will need to write a letter to explain why you cannot submit all the receipts.
2. Copy of National Health insurance Card
3. Certificate of Payment for National Health Insurance fee for past 2 years which you can obtain from a municipal office where you have registered your residency.
4. Documents to prove that you have paid required fees for Public medical insurance for the past 2 years (such us receipts or copy of your bank book) →If you are not keeping or some are missing you need to write a letter to explain why you cannot submit it.
What is “NENKIN NET” system?
Through the “NENKIN NET” system you can check your records of Pension for both the Employee’s Welfare Pension Insurance Program and the National Pension Program. You can also see how much pension you may receive in the feature, and you can print out “Monthly records of your Pension” which you submit to Immigration as mentioned earlier. In order to use the system, it requires to sign up with your Kiso Nenkin number which you can find from your Nenkin book (the blue or orange small book like the picture above). Unfortunately this system is only available in Japanese.
To use this system you need to enter your personal information into the website listed below. The website will also ask for a password to be used later to log in. After your information is confirmed, you will receive an ID by post mail. It will take about five business days to receive your ID. Once received, you can now use this ID and your password to log in.
NENKIN NET website: https://www.nenkin.go.jp/n_net/n_net/manual.html
Japanese words you may need to know
Employee’s Health Insurance program:厚生年金保険
Employee’s Welfare Pension Insurance program:厚生年金
National Health Insurance program:国民年金保険
National Pension Program:国民年金
Monthly records of your Pension:月別の年金記録
