Q: I just arrived in Japan to teach English for the next six months to a year. I have heard about the social insurance program but my new employer says I’m not eligible. Why not?

A: To qualify for the National Employees Health and Pension plan (shakai hoken) you need to be a full time employee. A full time employee is defined as someone that works at least 75% of the number of hours that constitutes a full work week. In other words, you must work at least 30 hours per week (75% of a 40 hour week) to qualify.

Employers are required to pay half of their employee’s monthly contributions to Shakai Hoken. This can be very expensive and for this reason some English conversation schools structure their contracts to constitute 29.5 working hours. In this way they are able to avoid this large expense.

As a resident of Japan you can register yourself for National Health and the National Pension as an individual. If you intend to reside in Japan for less than a year then you may decide that private savings and health insurance programs are cheaper and a better fit with your personal circumstances.

Objective Trading offers free consultations on a wide range of saving and insurance solutions.

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