Japan National Pension for Students: 17,920 Yen and How to Defer It

Last updated: 24 August 2026

The National Pension (kokumin nenkin) is Japan’s public pension for everyone aged 20 to 59 living here. It is not only for Japanese nationals. Foreign residents with a resident registration are covered once they turn 20. It is separate from National Health Insurance, and billed separately.

Do students really have to pay the pension?

You cannot work more hours, and the envelopes arrive anyway. Inside a 28-hour weekly cap you cover rent and food, and then 17,920 yen a month lands on top. Of course it does not fit.

And the obligation itself does not go away. At 20 or over with a resident registration, you are covered. Neither “I did not know” nor “I am only here temporarily” removes it.

What does exist is a route for people who cannot pay. That is the student payment special provision.

How much is the premium?

For FY2026 the National Pension premium is 17,920 yen a month, which comes to over 214,000 yen across the year.

Set that against a 28-hour cap. Tokyo’s minimum wage is 1,226 yen an hour (rising to 1,280 yen on 1 October 2026), so 28 hours across four weeks is 112 hours and about 137,000 yen a month. Take out rent and food, then find 17,920 yen. The arithmetic does not work, and that is not your fault.

It is a deferral, not an exemption

Search in English and you will find this called a student pension exemption. That is what people call it, so this page has too. The scheme’s actual name is the student payment special provision, and what it grants is a deferral.

The difference matters. A deferral means “you may pay later”, not “you never have to pay”. Approved months count toward your qualifying period, but they are not reflected in the pension amount. Pay them back later and that changes.

It is still worth applying, because of how far it sits from the alternative.

What happens if you leave it unpaid?

Say nothing and pay nothing, and demands come first. Keep ignoring those and your assets can be seized.

For foreign residents there is a second weight. Applications to extend your period of stay, and applications for permanent residence, are assessed partly on whether you meet your public obligations. Pension and health insurance premiums are among those obligations. The renewal counter also asks to see your health insurance card.

Which brings the point of this page. Holding an approved deferral means you are not in arrears. You have not paid, but you have followed the process. What reaches your visa is ignoring it, not deferring it.

Can Japanese language school students apply?

The scheme covers students at universities and graduate schools, junior colleges, high schools, colleges of technology, special needs schools, and specialised training colleges and miscellaneous schools – evening, part-time and correspondence courses included.

Most Japanese language schools fall under “miscellaneous schools”, so they are usually covered. There are conditions, though. A miscellaneous school must run a course of one year or longer, and private ones need prefectural governor approval. So it varies school to school.

Two ways to check.

• Ask your school office. Fastest by a distance, and an approved school may hand you the application form on the spot
• Look up the Japan Pension Service list of eligible schools, published on their site

There is an income condition as well. Your income for the previous year must be at or below 1,280,000 yen plus 380,000 yen per dependent, plus social insurance deductions. Most students working within the 28-hour cap sit inside that.

How to apply

Three places accept the application, and any of them is fine.

• The National Pension desk at the city or ward office where you are registered
• A pension office
• Your school, if it holds the relevant approval

Bring your student ID or a certificate of enrolment, and something showing your basic pension number. Take your residence card too.

The application runs by fiscal year. Filing once does not cover you until graduation. Apply again when the new school year starts. Forgetting this is how people end up in arrears from year two.

Do I have to pay it back eventually?

No. Back-payment is not compulsory. There is no penalty for never paying, and no demands arrive. Deferred months still count toward the 10-year qualifying period, so your right to receive a pension at all is untouched.

What changes is the amount only. Two years deferred and never repaid means an old-age basic pension roughly 40,000 yen a year below the full rate.

If you do want to repay, you have 10 years. Note that back-payments from the third fiscal year onward carry an added amount, so sooner is cheaper.

Is repaying worth it? Not if you are going home

This is where the answer differs from almost everything written in Japanese. Those articles say repay, and they assume you stay in Japan.

Run the numbers. One year of back-payment is 17,920 yen times 12, or 215,040 yen.

If you leave Japan, the only thing repayment buys back is the lump-sum withdrawal payment. And that payment is designed to be exactly half of what you contributed – 53,760 yen per six months in FY2026, so 107,520 yen for a year.

So you pay 215,040 yen to get 107,520 yen back. If you already know you are leaving, keeping the money is the better move.

One more thing that saves people money. The lump-sum payment is capped. Sixty months of contributions reaches the maximum of 537,600 yen and nothing beyond that counts. If you already have five years of paid months, repaying adds nothing at all.

So the decision splits cleanly.

• Staying in Japan to work? Repaying is worth it. A pension pays out for as long as you live, so breaking even at ten years means everything after that is gain
• Going home after graduation? Do not repay. Keep the 215,040 yen and claim the lump-sum payment when you leave
• Not sure yet? Nothing is urgent. You have ten years, and deciding once your path is settled is still in time

Does deferring reduce my lump-sum withdrawal payment?

This part has to be said plainly. Yes, it does.

The lump-sum withdrawal payment you can claim on leaving Japan is calculated from a defined set of months: months of paid premiums, quarter-exempted months times three quarters, half-exempted months times one half, and three-quarter-exempted months times one quarter. Student deferral months are not on that list.

So months you deferred do not count, and the payment is smaller by exactly that much.

The order is still clear.

• Pay if you can. It builds both your pension and your lump-sum payment
• If you cannot, defer. Your visa stays clean and you can pay it back later
• Never simply leave it unpaid. No money either way, plus seizure and a visa problem

Back-payment turns those months into paid months. Pay them back once you are working and the lump-sum payment comes back too. Deferring is the recoverable choice.

Amounts and conditions were checked on the Japan Pension Service website on 24 August 2026. Rules change – confirm on the official site or at a counter before you apply. Official sources: Japan Pension Service, student payment special provision / the same body’s list of eligible schools

Still short? Cut fixed costs in this order

Deferring the pension may not close the gap on its own. The chart below is ordered by size, but size is not the only thing that decides the order. Whether you can act on it today matters just as much.

Rent is the big one. Moving from an 80,000 yen one-room flat into a share house at 30,000 yen frees up 50,000 yen a month.

Weigh that properly. 28 hours a week is 112 hours a month, so 50,000 yen divided by 112 is 446 yen an hour. Someone on 1,226 yen would have to find a job paying 1,672 yen to match it. Nobody negotiates a 446 yen raise. You can move house this month.

Then the pension at 17,920 yen, then a budget SIM at around 7,000 yen. National Health Insurance has a reduction scheme as well.

Water-saving shower heads, electric blankets, cheaper supermarkets – together a little under 10,000 yen a month. Not the 50,000 yen that rent moves.

Calling that small would be wrong, though. On an income of 137,000 yen a month, 10,000 yen is 7 percent of everything you have. And the three options differ in a way the numbers hide.

Some people cannot move mid-contract, and some cannot leave the area around their school. For them the small economies are not the last resort – they are the only thing available right now.

So the real order is this. Take the big moves when you can. Take the small ones today. It was never a choice between them.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Do international students have to pay the National Pension?

Yes. At 20 or over with a resident registration you are covered regardless of nationality. If you cannot pay, apply for the student payment special provision to have the premiums deferred.

Q. How much is the National Pension premium?

17,920 yen a month for FY2026, which is over 214,000 yen across the year.

Q. Is the student provision an exemption?

Strictly it is a deferral rather than an exemption. Approved months count toward your qualifying period but not toward the pension amount. You can pay them back within 10 years, and doing so does count them.

Q. Can students at Japanese language schools apply?

Usually yes. Miscellaneous schools are covered, provided the course runs a year or longer and, for private schools, the prefectural governor has approved it. Ask your school office or check the Japan Pension Service list of eligible schools.

Q. What happens if I just do not pay?

Demands come first, then your assets can be seized. Extensions of stay and permanent residence applications also assess whether you meet public obligations, which include pension and health insurance premiums. An approved deferral does not count against you.

Q. Does deferring reduce my lump-sum withdrawal payment?

Yes. The payment is calculated from paid and partially exempted months, and student deferral months are not included. Paying them back within 10 years turns them into paid months and restores it.

Q. Do I have to pay the deferred months back?

No. Repayment is not compulsory and there is no penalty for skipping it. Deferred months still count toward the qualifying period, so your right to a pension is unaffected. Only the amount changes: two deferred years never repaid means roughly 40,000 yen a year below the full pension.

Q. Is repaying worth it?

Not if you are going home. A year of repayment costs 215,040 yen and raises the lump-sum withdrawal payment by only 107,520 yen. If you stay in Japan it reverses: the old-age pension rises by about 20,000 yen a year and breaks even in roughly ten years. You have ten years to decide, so waiting until your path is settled is fine.

Q. Do I only apply once?

No, it runs by fiscal year. Apply again at the start of each school year, or you fall into arrears from year two.

In short

• Residents aged 20 and over are covered, students included. The premium is 17,920 yen a month
• Cannot pay? Apply for the student payment special provision – a deferral, not an exemption
• Unpaid and deferred are not the same. Unpaid brings seizure and reaches your visa; deferred does not
• Japanese language school students can usually apply (one-year course, governor approval for private schools)
• Apply every fiscal year. People fall into arrears in year two by forgetting
• Deferred months do not count toward the lump-sum payment, and repayment is not compulsory
• Going home? Do not repay (215,040 yen buys back 107,520 yen). Staying in Japan flips it
• Still short? Start with rent. Cutting 50,000 yen equals a 446 yen hourly raise

Related reading

• Lump-sum withdrawal payment: getting pension money back when you leave
• National Health Insurance: premiums, reductions and arrears
• Share houses: no deposit, no key money
• Part-time work: counting the 28 hours