PR: projected pension will be compared with a benchmark

ISA will compare an applicant’s projected pension with a benchmark: what someone would get after 30 years of work at above-average Japanese household income, enrolled in the Employees’ Pension (厚生年金).

Financial assets can make up a shortfall. How much you’d need depends on your age, and younger applicants need less. If you’re married, your two projected pensions are added together and compared with the benchmark plus what a Category 3 insured spouse would receive, and the savings figure rises to match.

ISA says only financial assets count, and that money held briefly for the application won’t. It plans to ask for documents showing the assets weren’t acquired for that purpose. It doesn’t plan to publish the benchmark or the savings amounts, and says the details of how this will work are still being decided.

Your pension record and projected benefits are in ねんきんネット. If months are missing, it’s worth fixing them before you apply.

On the spouse route

The pension test is part of the independent-livelihood requirement, which spouses and children of Japanese nationals, permanent residents and special permanent residents don’t have to meet. So the benchmark doesn’t apply to them directly. ISA hasn’t said this in a single sentence, but it follows from the guideline’s own structure. A household that’s a public burden, or realistically could become one, can still count against them.