What Japanese social insurance covers
In Japan, “social insurance” (shakai hoken) narrowly means health insurance and the Employees’ Pension, and broadly also includes employment and workers’ accident insurance. Employees join through their employer, and apart from accident insurance, most premiums are split half and half with the company.
- Health insurance (kenko hoken): 30% co-payment for medical care, sickness allowance when you cannot work, childbirth allowance and more. Staff at smaller firms usually belong to the Japan Health Insurance Association (Kyokai Kenpo); large companies often run their own health insurance society (kenpo kumiai).
- Long-term care insurance (kaigo hoken): From age 40 to 64 it is added to your health insurance premium. From 65 you pay it separately to your municipality.
- Employees’ Pension (kosei nenkin): An earnings-related pension on top of the basic National Pension. The rate is fixed at 18.3%, split equally with your employer.
- Employment insurance (koyo hoken): Funds unemployment benefits, childcare leave benefits and training benefits. Of the four, it has the smallest employee share.
- Workers’ accident insurance (rosai hoken): Covers injuries and illness at work or while commuting. The employer pays all of it, at 2.5 to 88 per 1,000 depending on the industry.
- Child and childcare support levy (kodomo kosodate shienkin): A new levy collected with health insurance premiums from the April 2026 premium onward, funding measures against the falling birth rate.
FY2026 rates at a glance
The Kyokai Kenpo average rate fell from 10.0% in FY2025 to 9.9% in FY2026, while the long-term care rate rose from 1.59% to 1.62%. Employment insurance dropped from 1.45% to 1.35%, a cut of 0.5 per 1,000 for both employer and employee.
| Item | Total rate | Employee share | Effective / notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health insurance (Kyokai Kenpo, Tokyo) | 9.85% | 4.925% | From the March 2026 premium (paid in April) |
| Health insurance (Kyokai Kenpo, national average) | 9.9% | 4.95% | By prefecture 9.21% (Niigata) to 10.55% (Saga) |
| Long-term care (ages 40–64) | 1.62% | 0.81% | From March 2026, same nationwide |
| Child support levy | 0.23% | 0.115% | From the April 2026 premium (paid in May) |
| Employees’ Pension | 18.3% | 9.15% | Fixed since September 2017 |
| Employment insurance (general business) | 1.35% | 0.5% | April 2026 to March 2027 |
| Workers’ accident insurance | 0.25–8.8% by industry | None | Paid entirely by the employer |
If you belong to a company health insurance society, its own rate applies (some societies have the employer pay more than half). Employment insurance is higher in agriculture/forestry/fisheries, sake brewing and construction (employee share 6 per 1,000).
Premiums are based on standard monthly remuneration
Health insurance and pension premiums are not calculated on your exact monthly pay but on a banded amount called standard monthly remuneration (hyojun hoshu getsugaku). Commuting allowances count as remuneration here, even though they are largely tax-free for income tax.
Premiums are usually deducted from this month’s pay for last month. So your first paycheck may have no social insurance deducted, and if you leave at the end of a month, your last paycheck may include two months (practice varies by employer).
Example: Tokyo, Kyokai Kenpo, under 40, standard monthly remuneration ¥300,000 Health insurance 300,000 × 9.85% ÷ 2 = ¥14,775 Pension 300,000 × 18.3% ÷ 2 = ¥27,450 Employment ins. 300,000 × 0.5% = ¥1,500 (based on actual pay) Support levy 300,000 × 0.23% ÷ 2 = ¥345 Total about ¥44,070 (ages 40–64 add ¥2,430 for long-term care: about ¥46,500)
- Annual determination (teiji kettei): Your grade is set from the average pay received in April, May and June, and applies from that September to the following August. Heavy overtime in spring can raise your premiums for a whole year.
- Interim revision (zuiji kaitei): If fixed wages such as base pay change and the three-month average moves by two grades or more, the grade is revised from the fourth month.
- Floors and caps: Health insurance ranges from ¥58,000 (grade 1) to ¥1.39 million (grade 50); the pension from ¥88,000 to ¥650,000 (grade 32). Under the 2025 pension reform law, the pension cap is set to rise to ¥680,000 in September 2027, ¥710,000 in September 2028 and ¥750,000 in September 2029.
- Bonuses: The same rates apply to bonuses, based on the standard bonus amount (rounded down to the nearest ¥1,000). Caps are ¥5.73 million per fiscal year for health insurance and ¥1.5 million per month for the pension (combined if paid more than once in the same month).
Self-employed and between jobs: National Health Insurance and National Pension
People outside company schemes — the self-employed, freelancers, the unemployed and those between jobs — join their municipality’s National Health Insurance (kokumin kenko hoken) and become Category 1 members of the National Pension (kokumin nenkin).
- National Pension: The FY2026 premium (April 2026 to March 2027) is a flat ¥17,920 per month. It covers residents of Japan aged 20 to 59, including foreign residents. Low-income members can apply for exemption or deferral.
- National Health Insurance: Each municipality sets premiums based on the previous year’s income and household size. There is no employer share, and the child support levy is added from the April 2026 premium.
- Options after leaving a job: (1) National Health Insurance (register within 14 days of leaving); (2) voluntary continuation of your former employer’s health insurance (nin’i keizoku: apply within 20 days, up to two years, you pay both halves); (3) becoming a dependent of a family member. If your income last year was high, voluntary continuation can be cheaper, so compare the amounts.
- Switching pensions: When you leave a company you move from the Employees’ Pension (Category 2) to National Pension Category 1, and must notify your municipality within 14 days. A dependent spouse (Category 3) also becomes Category 1 when the working spouse leaves.
The income walls: ¥1.06 million and ¥1.3 million
Part-time workers and students watch these “walls” because crossing certain income levels means paying social insurance in their own name, which can temporarily reduce take-home pay.
Joining social insurance lowers take-home pay in the short run, but it builds up Employees’ Pension and gives access to sickness and childbirth allowances. Which is better depends on the household, so look at both the money and the coverage.
- The ¥1.06 million wall (abolished): The wage requirement of ¥88,000 or more per month was abolished on 1 October 2026 under the 2025 pension reform law. Now anyone working 20 hours or more a week at a company with 51 or more employees, who is not a student, joins company social insurance regardless of pay.
- Employer-size schedule: The 51-employee threshold is set to drop to 36 in October 2027, 21 in October 2029 and 11 in October 2032, and to disappear in October 2035 (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare).
- The ¥1.3 million wall: The income limit for staying a dependent on a family member’s company health insurance: under ¥1.3 million (¥1.8 million for those 60+ or with disabilities), relaxed to under ¥1.5 million for ages 19–22 (other than spouses) from October 2025. From April 2026, if wages are the only income, the test uses the wage in the employment contract, so going over because of unforeseen overtime is in principle not counted.
- Not the same as the tax wall: The point where income tax starts (¥1.78 million of salary for 2026) is a tax rule; the ¥1.06m and ¥1.3m walls are social insurance rules, with different criteria and calculations.
Comparison with Korea’s four social insurances
| Item | Japan (FY2026) | Korea (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Pension | Employees’ Pension 18.3% (employee 9.15%) | National Pension 9.5% (employee 4.75%) |
| Health insurance | Kyokai Kenpo average 9.9% (employee about 4.95%) | 7.19% (employee 3.595%) |
| Long-term care | Ages 40–64 only, separate 1.62% rate | 13.14% of the health premium |
| Employment insurance | Employee 0.5% | Employee 0.9% |
| Accident insurance | Employer pays all | Employer pays all |
| Premium base | Standard monthly remuneration (April–June average, banded) | Monthly pay (settled each April) |
Total employee contributions are about 14.7% of pay in Japan (Tokyo, Kyokai Kenpo; about 15.5% for ages 40–64) versus about 9.7% in Korea. Japan’s pension rate is higher, but there is no annual April health insurance settlement as in Korea.
FAQ
Will working less overtime in April–June lower my premiums?
Because the annual determination uses April–June pay, lower pay in that period can lower your grade for a year from September. But lower premiums also mean a smaller future pension and sickness allowance, and a large pay change triggers an interim revision anyway.
Do foreigners have to join Japanese social insurance?
Yes. Nationality does not matter if you meet the conditions. Japan has social security agreements with several countries (including Korea) that let workers sent from their home company for up to five years stay in their home pension only, on application; health insurance is not covered by the Japan–Korea agreement. When leaving Japan you can claim a lump-sum withdrawal payment (dattai ichijikin) for pension contributions.
Why are health insurance society rates lower than Kyokai Kenpo?
Societies run by large companies or industries set their own rates based on their members’ age and income, and the employer sometimes pays more than half. Check your rate on your payslip or the society’s website.
How much is the child support levy?
The FY2026 rate is 0.23%, split equally. With standard monthly remuneration of ¥300,000 the employee pays ¥345 a month. The total levy is scheduled to grow through FY2028, so the rate may change.
Basis and sources
- Japan Health Insurance Association (Kyokai Kenpo) — FY2026 prefectural rates, long-term care rate and child support levy rate
- Japan Pension Service — Employees’ Pension premium table (18.3%, standard monthly remuneration grades)
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare — Employment insurance rates (FY2026)
- Japan Pension Service — Wage requirement (¥88,000/month) for part-time workers abolished in October 2026
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare — “Income wall” measures, employer-size schedule and dependent rules
- Children and Families Agency — Child and childcare support levy
- Japan Pension Service — National Pension premium (¥17,920/month in FY2026)