Who Can Claim a Japan Pension Refund?

Japan’s lump-sum withdrawal payment (dattai ichiji-kin) may apply to eligible non-Japanese nationals with qualifying National Pension, Employees’ Pension Insurance, or both types of records. The requirements and calculations differ by scheme.

Below are the conditions you need to meet in order to be eligible.

Core Eligibility Conditions

All of the following must apply to you at the time you submit your claim:

• Non-Japanese nationality. The National Pension and Employees’ Pension Insurance lump-sum withdrawal payments are available only to eligible non-Japanese nationals. Other requirements must also be met.
• Meet the applicable scheme-specific six-month requirement. National Pension uses its specified contribution-paid and weighted partial-exemption periods; Employees’ Pension Insurance uses its insured period. Periods under the two schemes are not pooled into one six-month total.
• No registered address in Japan. You must have deregistered your residence in Japan before submitting the claim. In practice, this means you have already left the country.
• Application submitted within the applicable two-year filing period. The starting point depends on the official coverage-loss and Japan-address facts; it should not be inferred from a flight date alone.
• Not entitled to a Japanese old-age pension. If you have accumulated enough years to qualify for a Japanese pension benefit under a social security agreement, you generally cannot receive the lump-sum withdrawal payment.

The six-month condition is different from the 60-month payment calculation cap and the 120-month old-age-pension qualifying period. Read the comparison of 6, 60 and 120 months before using an approximate month count as an eligibility answer.

Which Type of Pension Insurance Qualifies?

Official rules provide separate lump-sum withdrawal payments for National Pension and Employees’ Pension Insurance. If you have records under one or both schemes, the scheme-specific periods, six-month checks, and payment formulas must be reviewed separately. See the National Pension and Employees’ Pension comparison before treating mixed records as one total.

How Much Can You Receive?

The following Employees’ Pension Insurance examples depend on average standard remuneration and the applicable insured-period band. National Pension uses a different scheme-specific formula:

• 1 year of enrollment at a monthly salary of ¥300,000 → approximately ¥250,000–¥300,000
• 3 years of enrollment at a monthly salary of ¥500,000 → approximately ¥1,000,000–¥1,500,000
• 5 years of enrollment with a higher salary and bonuses → over ¥5,600,000 in some cases

These are illustrative figures. The actual amount is calculated by the Japan Pension Service based on your individual records.

The Withholding Tax and the Follow-Up Refund

For a non-resident, 20.42% withholding income tax is deducted from an Employees’ Pension Insurance lump-sum withdrawal payment. A separate tax filing may recover some or all of the withheld tax; it is not automatic or guaranteed. The same withholding is not applied to a National Pension lump-sum withdrawal payment. PenPos handles the follow-up filing where applicable.