What is “Standard Remuneration”?

By | 01/02/2022

How the amount of Kosei Nenkin is decided

Japan provides residents with two kinds of pensions – “Kokumin Nenkin” (国民年金, National Pension) and “Kosei Nenkin” (厚生年金, Employees’ Pension Insurance). Employees hired by employers are registered in Kosei Nenkin. All the other residents are registered in Kokumin Nenkin. For details of the two systems please see this article of our blog.

The amount of Kokumin Nenkin is decided according to the number of contributed months (*). The longer you contribute by age 60, the more you receive after age 65. The contribution amount per one month is fixed to all contributors, no matter how much you earn.

(*) If you are a dependent partner and your partner pays Kosei Nenkin, then the years when you are the dependent are regarded as your contribution period.

On the other hand the amount of Kosei Nenkin is decided according to THE SUM of the “fixed” part and the “salary-proportional” part.

  • “Fixed” part = [number of contributed months] * A constant number
  • “Salary-proportional” part = [number of contributed months] * [Average of Standard Remuneration] * A constant number

So the more Average of “Standard Remuneration” (標準報酬月額 in Japanese) gets, the more Kosei Nenkin’s “Salary-proportional” part gets. The amount of Standard Remuneration is nearly the same as your monthly amount of both salary and bonus (*). The average of your Standard Remunerations as an employee through your life decides the amount of your old age pension. If salary and bonus are high in your 50s but they were low in your younger ages, for example, the average of your Standard Remuneration will get relatively modest.

(*) As for salaries over 650,000yen per one month, though, they are regarded as 650,000yen to calculate Standard Remuneration.

Standard Remuneration in turn decides the contribution amount employees need to pay. According to the amount of salary and bonus in each month Standard Remuneration gets up and down, and the withheld amount by Gensen Choshu in employees’ payslips also gets up and down.


To estimate your expected old age pension, please try this page of our website.

How Much You Get? – Calculation Page

To input your Average of Standard Remuneration you can get the most precise amount, but you need to get the precise and total record of your pension contributions to calculate it.

So please input a rough amount of the average of your monthly salary on “A-2 My AVERAGE MONTHLY SALARY”.

How the amount of Lump-sum Withdrawal Payments are decided

The amount of Lump-sum Withdrawal Payments (脱退一時金), the lump-sum payback of Japanese pensions only for non-Japanese persons, are decided in the same way as old age pensions:

  • Lump-sum Withdrawal Payments of Kokumin Nenkin = [The amount according to the number of contributed months (note: the years when you are the dependent are excluded)] * A constant number
  • Lump-sum Withdrawal Payments of Kosei Nenkin = [The constant number according to the number of contributed months (note: 60 months are maximum)] * [Average of Standard Remuneration]

For details of how the amount of Lump-sum Withdrawal Payments are decided, please see this page of our website:

Table : How the amount of Pension Refund is calculated

YouAT LLC gives you services for Japanese pension and tax refunds

We YouAT LLC has more than 10 year’s history to support non-Japanese employees’ “Lump-sum Withdrawal Payments”, “Old Age Pension”, and income tax refunds.
We have staff of Labor and Social Security Attorney, Administrative Scrivener, and Tax Accountant.

Please feel free to contact us for Japanese Pension and Tax Refunds!

YouAT LLC website — > www.youat-jp.com/

Email –> info@youat-jp.com

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