Help - possible pension shafting!

[rooboy]

(And thanks to gboothe and the other poster for directing me to quirky Japan com).

Have a friend who applied for his kokuminkenkohoken refund relatively recently from his home country. My kanji is shit so I was never able to help him work out just what he was paying thru his ward office but it looked the same as me.

It looked like kokuminkenkohoken. Both paying 10 percent of our income on health insurance and the pension combined. NO separation, just one booklet.
Now he's been told by the Tokyo folk (by letter) that he NEVER paid in!:(

He is furious - he lived in 3 separate wards, always paid 10 percent on his health insurance and he was convinced it was kokuminkenkohoken which means he was (and I am) paying the pension with the health insurance. It's so fucking expensive so it can't be anything else.

So ......... can the vets please write for our info the kanji for kokuminkenkohoken? My friend has one of his booklets with him in his home country from his former and last ward office he lived in. He doesn't have any from his previous two wards.

Is that the way he can find out what's going on? Copy that booklet and send it to them, plus his voucher booklet from the last year he paid? It doesn't have the vouchers (obviously) but surely it could prove he was paying kokuminkenkohoken.

He doesn't have any other shit but that. Same as me actually. I don't have some fucking orange booklet. I just have a booklet issued by my city hall each year which has a number. Maybe the problem is he and I don't have any no other than the health insurance one.

But I thought the kokuminkenkohoken booklet had one number - both pension no and health no? Any helpo is appreciated!

[Tommybar]

[Tommybar]

[Captain Japan]

Do you have your salary pay slips? If you paid the pension, it would be shown as deducted from your salary each month (just like the Ward tax, health, etc.).

Kokuminhoken literally means "national health insurance." I don't see how the pension (nenkin) could be included. But then again, as far as I know, the law says you have to be enrolled in the pension program (unless you satisfy a few unique conditions).

My pension book (nenkinsho, I guess) is blue. But I think they come in other colors.

[Big Booger]

[rooboy]

Didn't think anybody would reply til later! Thanks again! Captain Japan - my friend started with one of the chain schools, worked there for 1 year and then left to do part time jobs, pulling in a bit less than what he earned at the chain school.

Therefore he was classified as 'self employed' by his ward office. He never had health insurance at his first employer so when he left after one year and started doing arabaito and arabaito, he went to his ward office to enrol in the national health insurance. He was told he had to pay kokuminkenkohoken - which covered both the ward's health insurance and a pension scheme. Same as me.

He (and I) couldn't separate the payments. That's what it's all about - if you recall there have been stories in Asahi or Mainichi or somewhere over the past month or so where a working party on pension reform called for it to be separated from the health insurance payments and means tested.

Great idea - but I can't see the Jp doing it. That's the stick part - my friend couldn't get out of paying the pension cause if he did he'd have to just give up on the national health insurance. I hope this info helps.

I think it probably takes this discussion and people's advice in a different direction. My friend is being told he never paid the pension but the scheme he was enrolled in at his ward office doesn't separate the two. Does that info clarify what we're talking about? Sorry -first post was unclear.