JJapan Finance

TIL: Additional Nenkin (not the regular one) is probably one of the best investments you can ever make in Japan.

  • September 7, 2025

You can choose to pay 400yen/month extra, and you will get 200yen/year for every month that you paid into it. So if you are 30, and pay 35 years (that's 168000yen total over 35 years) you will get an extra 84000 yen every, single, year you are alive. You will get back all that you paid into it within the first two years, and everything else is (kinda) bonus money. The ROI is through the roof especially as you approach your retirement age. Early on (20~30yos) you are still looking at 5~6% return if you can make it to 80. All the glorious 4800yen are deductible too of course. This is the infinite money trick if there is one.

Only applicable to self/unemployed.

And no, the regular nenkin still kinda sucks, that didn't change, sorry.

Ref: https://www.nenkin.go.jp/service/jukyu/seido/sonota-kyufu/1go-dokuji/20140625.html

Edit: Chill guys its 168k over 35 years. It probably doesn't even cover a month of rent at this day and age to begin with. But it is (mostly) risk free, and the ROI is good especially if you are close to retirement.

by tobyclh

18 comments

  1. That depends on how Japan’s pension system will look in 35 years doesn’t it? Not exactly the rosiest of pictures given the median age right now is 50 years old in Japan.

  4. An extra $571 equivalent per year? No thanks im good. My investments back in the US fluctuates between $20k to $80k a every single day from the market (simple index funds) so $571 is literally a fart in the wind

  5. This is something you do to kill time and forget about it for 35 years and use it to go out for the night when the time comes around 😅

  6. QQQ 10 year return was 19.42%. SPY 10 year return was 14.5%. Managing your own money will give you the best return.

  7. Keep in mind the value of future money will be much less due to inflation. And that’s money you could have invested. I haven’t looked into it and your probably right. But it may not be as huge of a win as you think.

  9. Thanks, this is a great write up with example and source. This topic is not covered in the wiki’s pension page. Would you kindly add it there ?

  10. Totally agree it’s an amazing investment for people who will likely retire in Japan.

    Can company employees contribute? I was under the impression that they couldn’t but I haven’t researched it closely.

    One word of caution: This is a nominal amount right (not adjusted for inflation)? If the LDP gets their way it’s gonna be worthless when you retire. So doing this program is a bet against Abenomics and the current LDP. That is actually not a terrible bet given how much the Japanese population hates inflation and is disposing of the LDP over it.

  11. Yep, fuka nenkin isn’t particularly well publicized. I wish I’d known about it a decade or two ago rather than last year, when I finally cottoned on and thought I might as well add a few meagre yennies to the pitiful kokumin nenkin I’ll eventually receive as a sole proprietor.

    The only downside is that the nenkin itself will be adjusted to rise with inflation, while (as far as I’m aware) fuka nenkin will only ever be worth that 200 yen/year of contribution… which could be the square root of fuck all by the 2050s, so who knows if it’s really worth it.

    On a related note, this was why I quickly noped out of the nenkin kikin scheme, which the pension office was very keen to advertise to me at the time I joined up with fuka nenkin – zero adjustments for inflation with that either. Which makes it seem like a shockingly bad deal in comparison to Ideco.

  14. Yeah assuming they don’t lock you out of the country again like they did during Covid. Remember that? Why give these people a dime.

  15. Nice try, pension office.

    I’ll take my chances with Bitcoin. It’s done a lot for me already.

  18. You have to be entitle have be entirely self employed (not just a side hustle with a regular job) or unemployed to use this?

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