All people, including foreigners are to enroll into the National Pension Plan

(*Excluded are those who are enrolled in the Employee Pension System.)

The National Pension Plan is a system that provides a basic pension to all individuals for their lifetime. It is a system in which we all contribute premiums in advance and support each other financially so that our lives will not be impaired by old age or unforeseen accidents.
In principle, all persons between the ages of 20 and 60 with an address in Japan are required to enroll into the National Pension Plan, regardless of their nationality.
The enrollment procedure is at the ward office where your address is registered.
*However, foreigners will no longer be able to participate in the National Pension Plan once they lose their address in Japan.
For foreigners who have paid insurance premiums but return to their home countries without being eligible for benefits, there is a system for a lump-sum withdrawal payment.
There is a multilingual guide to the National Pension Plan. See here for details.

Available languages: Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Indonesian, Tagalog, Thai, Vietnamese, Myanmar (Burmese), Cambodian, Russian, Nepali, and Mongolian