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Japan Pension Lump-Sum Withdrawal Payment: Who Can Claim It After Leaving Japan, How to Apply, and What You Give Up

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By iStart Editorial Team·Published November 8, 2026

Japan Pension Lump-Sum Withdrawal Payment: Who Can Claim It After Leaving Japan, How to Apply, and What You Give Up

Your contract is nearly done. Every payslip from your job showed a pension deduction, and the group chats are full of offers to get it back for a cut. What happens to that money?

The Japan Pension Service pays a Lump-sum Withdrawal Payment to non-Japanese workers who leave after a short stay, including many who came through the Specified Skilled Worker route. You file it yourself; it has a cost worth knowing first.

What the Lump-Sum Withdrawal Payment Is

The Lump-sum Withdrawal Payment is a one-time payment for foreigners, people without Japanese nationality, who leave Japan after a short time in the National Pension or Employees' Pension Insurance. You receive part of what you paid in, rather than a monthly payment in old age; the amount follows your months paid and, for employees, your average pay.

The two schemes are counted separately: four months in each is not enough.

Who Can Claim It, and the Two-Year Deadline

Meet all four conditions, and one limit:

  • You do not have Japanese nationality.
  • You paid into either scheme for 6 months or more.
  • You are no longer insured, and no longer have an address in Japan.
  • You were never entitled to receive a pension, including a disability allowance.
  • Your total record is under 10 years, counting periods totalised under a social security agreement.

The deadline is two years from the date you no longer had an address in Japan. File your moving-out notification at the city or ward office before you fly; otherwise a re-entry permit makes you wait until it expires.

The 60-Month Maximum, and the Change Coming

Since April 2021 the lump sum counts at most 60 months (36 if all your months fall before March 2021). Past 60, you are paid for 60, yet every month is wiped, so in the official example a technical intern who returns as a Specified Skilled Worker files after each stay.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare says a 2025 law will raise the ceiling to eight years and pay nothing to anyone who leaves on a re-entry permit while it is valid, from a date the Cabinet sets within four years of promulgation. On 26 October 2026 the Service had published no date, so 60 months is still the rule.

The Japan Pension Service's Lump-sum Withdrawal Payment counts at most 60 months, since April 2021 (36 if all your months fall before March 2021); past 60, you are paid for 60, yet every month is wiped. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare says a 2025 law will raise the ceiling; on 26 October 2026 the Service had published no date, so 60 months is still the rule.

What You Give Up

Taking the lump sum wipes out, in the Service's words, every coverage period before it, so weigh their worth first: Japan's old-age pension needs 10 years of record.

The Philippines–Japan Social Security Agreement, in force since 1 August 2018 according to the Philippines' Social Security System (SSS), lets each country count the other's coverage toward its own benefits. Take the lump sum, the Service says, and those earlier Japanese periods can no longer be added up. Its notes put the SSS retirement pension at 65 (60 if retired) with at least 10 years of coverage, at least a year of it in the Philippines, through your SSS membership.

The workers we see leave well treat this as a career decision, not a cash-out: will they return, and are the years worth more as a record than as a lump sum? Choose knowingly.

A Filipina caregiver smooths a fresh sheet on a bed in a bright care home room in Japan, absorbed in her work.

How to Apply

Download the Lump-sum Withdrawal Payment Claim Form; it comes in Filipino (Tagalog), with a filled-in example. Attach:

  1. Copies of your passport pages showing your name, date of birth, nationality, signature and status of residence.
  2. Proof you no longer have an address in Japan (not needed if you filed the moving-out notification).
  3. A bank document showing the bank, branch, account number and that the account is in your own name.
  4. Proof of your Basic Pension Number, such as the notice that gave it to you.

Give your bank's SWIFT code; payments cannot go to Japan Post Bank, and the lump sum reaches the Philippines in US dollars. Mail everything to the Service's Foreign Business Group in Tokyo; if you post it before you fly, time it to arrive after your move-out date. An application missing an attachment comes back.

You can do all of this yourself; nothing on the Service's pages asks for a fee. Only nenkin.go.jp is the Service's own site; a similar-sounding one is not. For this payment, anyone charging to "release your pension refund" is selling you a stamp and an envelope.

How Long It Takes, and the Tax

With complete papers, the Service says it pays about four months after receiving your application, with a Notice of Lump-sum Withdrawal Payment Determination.

It withholds 20.42% income tax from the Employees' Pension Insurance payment, none from the National Pension one. You may receive a refund, the Service says, through a return that recalculates the tax under the retirement-income rules; the amount depends on that calculation. File it with the tax office for your last home in Japan through a tax agent living there, named to that office before you leave or, failing that, with the return; the forms are on the National Tax Agency's website. Send your agent the original Notice.

Before You Leave Japan: A Checklist

  • File your moving-out notification.
  • Copy your passport; keep your Basic Pension Number Notice.
  • Get a bank letter for your account, with its SWIFT code.
  • Returning, or near 10 years? Decide before you file.
  • Name a tax agent first if 20.42% will be withheld.

The Questions Filipinos Ask Us Most

Can I still apply once I am back in the Philippines?

Yes, by post, within two years from the date you no longer had an address in Japan; you receive the lump sum in US dollars in your own account.

Sources

Read 26 October 2026.

Japan Pension Service: