Last year, I made this post regarding the pension benefit increases for 2025. This post is heavily copy and pasted from that one, with updated numbers and links.
Today, January 23rd 2026, the MHLW released this press release about the changes in pension payouts for the fiscal year Reiwa 8.
As always, and as mandated by law, pension benefits for people under age 68 move in line with average wages (minus the macroeconomic slide), whereas pension benefits for people over age 68 move in line with inflation (minus the macroeconomic slide). This year, average wages were up 2.1% and inflation was 3.2%. The macroeconomic slide was calculated as -0.2%.
For example, national pension benefits (Kokumin Nenkin) will increase from ¥69,308 to ¥70,608. A sample case for a couple receiving average employee pension benefits (Kosei Nenkin) will increase from ¥232,784 to ¥237,279. If you pay Kosei Nenkin, then the amount of your benefits will depend on your wages throughout your working life.
There is also a system called 在職老齢年金 whereby if you make over a certain amount of money in retirement, the employee pension benefits portion of your pension will be reduced (not the basic pension portion, which is never reduced). This is greatly increasing to ¥650,000. You will be more able to receive a higher salary without losing any of your pension benefits. It’s also worth noting that this ¥650,000 doesn’t include the basic pension portion, so you can actually make ¥720,608 per month without having your pension cut. You can see more about that here.
Incidentally, the GPIF now has an average compound growth rate of 4.51% from 2001 to 2025, compared to when I posted last year it had an average growth rate of 4.26% and compared to two years ago when it was 3.91%. This means that the pension system is increasingly even more sustainable than ever. The money in the GPIF is currently not being used for pension benefit payouts at all, with all of the money coming from pension premiums and taxes. In the future, it is expected that the GPIF will account for 10% of pension payouts, with the other 90% coming from pension premiums and taxes. All of this means that the pension system will be sustainable for a very long time.
This year I will skip the sarcastic hater questions, although I expect there will be hate in the comments. Unfortunately, the evidence that the pension system is far from bankrupt and that your pension benefits will be ever increasing is stacking up against you.
As always, enjoy your higher pension benefits.
by fiyamaguchi