Exemption of National Pension Contributions

You may apply for exemption or postponement of contribution payments if you have temporarily financial difficulties. Student may apply for "Special Payment system for Students“ (payment postponement.)
Your future Old-age Basic Pension amount will be, however, lower than that with fully paid periods, if you have such contribution-exempted or postponed period. To avoid that, you may make retroactive payments to recover the past contribution-exempted periods for up to the past 10 years.

If you are a student and your income is less than a certain amount, you may be allowed to postpone contribution payments if your application is approved.
The period which the postponement was granted is considered as valid periods, not as non-payment period. So, if you become disabled or die during such periods, Disability / Survivors' Basic Pensions will be provided if you meet the following conditions;

(1) By the second month preceding the month of incident causing disability or death, you have filled at least two-thirds of your insured periods (months) with contribution paid periods and contribution-exempted periods.

(2) You have paid your contributions or you were exempted from contribution payments for the last 12 months up to the second month preceding the month of incident causing disability or death.

The granted periods count as qualifying periods for Old-age Basic Pension, however, unless you recover contribution payments afterwards, the periods will not be reflected to the amount of old-age benefits.

You need to apply for it at the municipal office of your place of residence. One application covers up to one year, so you need to apply for it every year, if needed.

You may be exempt from contribution payments if the previous year's income of you, your spouse, or head of your household is limited, and if your application for exemption is granted.
The type of exemption and monthly contribution amount for the fiscal year 2026 are as follows;

• full-amount-exemption
• 3/4-amount-exemption (you pay remaining \4,480)
• half-amount-exemption (you pay remaining \8,960)
• 1/4-amount-exemption (you pay remaining \13,440)

If you fail to pay the due remaining contribution amount during the granted period, however, it will be considered to be non-payment rather than partial exemption.

For the purpose of calculation of your pension benefits, your periods of full-amount-exemption for March 2009 and earlier will count as one-third of full-contribution-paid periods (the 3/4-amount-exemption periods will count as half, the half-amount-exemption periods as two-thirds and the 1/4-amount-exemption periods as five-sixths.) Your periods of full-amount-exemption for April 2009 and later will count as half of full-contribution-paid periods (the 3/4-amount-exemption periods will count as five-eighths, the half-amount exemption periods as six-eighths and the 1/4-amount-exemption periods as seven-eighths.)

You need to apply for it at the municipal office of your place of residence. One application covers up to one year, so you need to apply for it every year, if needed.

If you meet certain conditions specified by National Pension Act, e.g. beneficiary of the Disability Basic Pension, your contribution shall be exempted.

To establish exemption, you must report at the municipal office of your place of residence.

You may retroactively make payments to recover past contribution-exempted periods for up to the past 10 years. In that case, a specific index shall be imposed on your past contribution amount when you recover the old payments. That is, if you were granted the contribution exemption in a certain fiscal year (April to March) and if you wish to recover the contribution three or more fiscal years later, your old contribution amount is indexed by certain rate according to the age of the due contribution.

Note: Apply for the retroactive payments well in advance. If applied just before the deadline, your payments may not be technically accepted in time.

For retroactive payments, contact your nearest JPS branch office.