Leaving Japan · 脱退一時金
What the lump-sum withdrawal payment gives back when you leave Japan, from the months you paid and your pay: employees' and national pension, the tax taken from it and how to get that back, and the dates that matter before and after you leave.
Your pension record (ねんきん定期便 or ねんきんネット) shows the months. Count only months not already paid out by an earlier lump sum.
The day your address in Japan ends: the date on your moving-out notice (転出届).
Paid into your bank
¥682,797
¥858,000 once the tax comes back
Employees' pension
36 months count, at a payment rate of 3.3. The pension grade of your pay is ¥260,000, and ¥260,000 × 3.3 is the lump sum.
Getting the tax back
On the return for selective taxation the lump sum is taxed as retirement income: 3 years give a deduction of ¥1,200,000, more than the lump sum, so nothing is due and all of the ¥175,203 comes back.
Dates
Leaving in October 2026, the claim must reach the Japan Pension Service by that day of October 2028, two years on. Sent so that it arrives the month you leave, the money comes around February 2027, and the tax return can go in from January 2028.
You can claim the lump sum if you are not a Japanese national, have at least 6 months in one scheme (national pension paid, or employees' pension), have less than 10 years in all, have never been entitled to a Japanese pension (a disability allowance included) and no longer have an address in Japan. The claim must reach the Japan Pension Service within 2 years of the day your address in Japan ends.
If you leave with a re-entry permit, you can claim once you have filed your moving-out notice (転出届) at the city office. Without that notice you stay in the national pension until the permit expires, and you cannot claim before then.
Before you leave: file the moving-out notice (転出届) at your city office, and give the tax office of your address a notification of tax representative (所得税・消費税の納税管理人の届出書). Anyone with an address in Japan can be your representative; if you leave without one, the notification can go in later with the tax return.
The claim form (脱退一時金請求書) is in Japanese with English, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Filipino, Thai, Burmese, Khmer, Russian, Nepali or Mongolian. Send it to the Japan Pension Service by post or online through e-Gov: from abroad, or from Japan so that it arrives on or after your moving-out date.
Attach a copy of your passport (the pages with your name, birth date, nationality, signature and status of residence), a document from your bank showing the account is in your name, and your basic pension number (基礎年金番号通知書 or 年金手帳). Write your name, address abroad and account in capital letters, with the SWIFT code of a bank abroad. Japan Post Bank and some internet-only banks cannot receive the money.
About four months after the claim arrives, the money comes with a payment notice (脱退一時金支給決定通知書). Send the original to your tax representative: the tax return needs it.
Your representative files the return for selective taxation (退職所得の選択課税による還付のための申告書) at the tax office of your last address in Japan. The law dates it from 1 January of the year after the payment, or earlier once that year's total is final, and the refund can be claimed for five years.
Resident tax for a year is charged to whoever has an address in Japan on 1 January, on the income of the year before. Leave before 1 January and your last year's pay brings no resident tax; leave after it and the tax from June is still yours, even from abroad.
The rest of this year's resident tax: your employer stops taking it with your last pay. Leaving between June and December, you can ask the employer to take the rest from the last pay; leaving between January and April, the employer takes it, if the last pay covers it. Otherwise the city sends the bills, and someone in Japan must receive and pay them: a tax representative (納税管理人) registered at the city office.
Income tax: if you have to file a tax return for the year you leave, with a tax representative appointed before you go it is filed between 16 February and 15 March of the next year; without one, you file it before you leave.
Once you take the lump sum, every period you were in a Japanese pension before the claim is erased, also the months beyond the 60 that are paid. They cannot count toward a Japanese pension later, or be added to your years in a country that has a social security agreement with Japan.
Countries whose agreement adds the periods together (March 2026): Germany, the United States, Belgium, France, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Czechia, Spain, Ireland, Brazil, Switzerland, Hungary, India, Luxembourg, the Philippines, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and Austria. Vietnam and Indonesia have no social security agreement with Japan.
The lump sum counts at most 60 months for periods from April 2021, and 36 if all your months are before. Someone who comes back can claim after each stay: for example after technical intern training 2, and again after the years as a specified skilled worker 1.
The pension reform of 2025 raises the cap from 5 to 8 years and stops the lump sum for anyone who leaves with a re-entry permit while the permit is valid, both from a date a cabinet order will set within four years of the law. The pension service's page, updated on 1 April 2026, still gives 60 months.
20.42 % income tax is withheld from the employees' pension lump sum; nothing is withheld from the national pension one. The return for selective taxation taxes the lump sum as a resident's retirement income instead: the lump sum less a deduction of 400,000 yen for each year it counts (at least 800,000), then half of the rest.
On a lump sum of up to 2 million yen for 5 years (1.2 million for 3) nothing is due on the return, so all of the 20.42 % comes back. The return goes through your tax representative, who can be a friend or a colleague with an address in Japan.
No bonus. 20.42 % of it is withheld, and the return for selective taxation brings all or most of that back.
| Months | ¥200,000 a month | ¥250,000 a month | ¥300,000 a month | ¥400,000 a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | ¥220,000 | ¥286,000 | ¥330,000 | ¥451,000 |
| 24 | ¥440,000 | ¥572,000 | ¥660,000 | ¥902,000 |
| 36 | ¥660,000 | ¥858,000 | ¥990,000 | ¥1,353,000 |
| 48 | ¥880,000 | ¥1,144,000 | ¥1,320,000 | ¥1,804,000 |
| 60 | ¥1,100,000 | ¥1,430,000 | ¥1,650,000 | ¥2,255,000 |
No tax is withheld. Each year runs from April to March.
| Months | April 2026 to March 2027 | April 2025 to March 2026 | April 2024 to March 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6–11 | ¥53,760 | ¥52,530 | ¥50,940 |
| 12–17 | ¥107,520 | ¥105,060 | ¥101,880 |
| 18–23 | ¥161,280 | ¥157,590 | ¥152,820 |
| 24–29 | ¥215,040 | ¥210,120 | ¥203,760 |
| 30–35 | ¥268,800 | ¥262,650 | ¥254,700 |
| 36–41 | ¥322,560 | ¥315,180 | ¥305,640 |
| 42–47 | ¥376,320 | ¥367,710 | ¥356,580 |
| 48–53 | ¥430,080 | ¥420,240 | ¥407,520 |
| 54–59 | ¥483,840 | ¥472,770 | ¥458,460 |
| 60+ | ¥537,600 | ¥525,300 | ¥509,400 |
Estimates: your average pay turned into its pension grade (88,000 to 650,000 yen), bonuses as two payments a year, and national pension at the premium of the year of the month you leave. On the return, this lump sum is your only retirement pay of the year, and the years counted are its months up to 60, a part year counting as a whole one. The payment notice and your tax representative's return are what count.
