To Do List when Leaving Japan – How to Quit National Health Insurance

Every foreigner living in Japan for a certain period of time is obligated to enter National Health Insurance. But once the time comes to leave Japan, a certain procedure is necessary to quit the insurance. Especially exchange students or foreigners working independently need to visit the government office to do the procedure themselves. But what exactly do you have to do? Here are the details you need!

Necessary Documents

Every foreigner in Japan staying for more than three months must enter National Health Insurance, but by the time you leave Japan – be it to go back home, or head off to another country – it becomes necessary to quit the insurance. If you are working at a Japanese company, your health insurance will be covered by the company, so there is not that much to worry about, but exchange students or self-employed workers who receive National Health Insurance need to do the withdrawal procedure themselves. Once your departure date from Japan is decided, go to your local ward or city office where your residence is registered to start the procedure. Your insurance card’s expiration date will be revised to fit exactly the day of your departure, so you can use it as usual in case you need to go to the doctor’s before you leave. These are the necessary documents for the withdrawal procedure.

Passport
Residence Card (or Alien Registration Card)
National Health Insurance Card
A document to prove your departure date (e.g. flight ticket, e-Ticket, confirmation e-mail etc.)

Example: Notification to Disqualify from National Health Insurance

Depending on the local government, there are places where
you can start the procedure by simply stating at the office counter you would like to do so, but at some offices, you will need to fill out an official paper for that. This paper looks slightly different in each local office, but to give you an impression, we will introduce the paper the government office of Shinjuku Ward issues: the kokumin kenkōhoken shikakusōshitsu todoke (“notification to disqualify from National Health Insurance”). In each municipality, the necessary blanks to fill out are more or less the same, but it can help to read roughly through it beforehand. In this example, the person filling out the notification is also the head of household, meaning an individual person without family members applying as well.

1. Name

If you are the head of your household and none of your family members reside inJapan, you can just fill in your own name.

2. My Number

Also called “personal number”. We will explain this in the following.

3. Address

Write your address in the large blank, and check the small blank on the upper right.

4. Applicant (Relationship or connection to the head of household)

Since you are both the applicant and head of your household, circle honnin (本人) the small blank in the upper right and write “本人” in the lower left blank.

5. Telephone Number

You can also use your cell phone number.

6. Date of Application

Write the date of the day you are doing the procedure at the office.

7. Furigana

This is a blank where you are supposed to write your name’s furigana in katakana – but as long as you do not have a kanji name, you can leave this space blank.

8. Date of Birth

If you are a non-Japanese national, you can write your birth date using the year dates from the Christian (Anno Domini) calendar.

9. Sex

Circle the upper column for male, and the lower one for female.

10. Occupation

If you are unemployed or a student, choose 1., if you are self-employed or working individually, chose 2., if both do not apply, choose 3. and explain the details.

Regarding “My Number”

No matter if you are Japanese or a foreign national, as long as you live in Japan for a longer period of time, you will receive a 12-digit personal number, called “My Number”. Since January 1st, 2016, you need to submit your personal number when doing any procedures in connection with the National Health Insurance. People who are registered in Japan will have received a notification card with their personal number since October 2015. If you do not have your notification card at hand, you can apply to have it issued by showing a copy of a residence card to your local government office. The following page of the Cabinet Secretariat explains further details about My Number in English.

The Social Security and Tax Number System

They also provide a hotline available in Japanese, English, Chinese,
Korean, Spanish and Portuguese, so feel free to call them if something is unclear.

Regarding My Number issues: 0120-0178-26

About the Notification Card or Personal Number Card: 0120-0178-27

They are available Monday to Friday from 9:30am to 10pm, and Saturday and Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm. (Closed from December 29th – January 3rd.)
Customer service in languages other than English is available Monday to Friday from 9:30am to 8pm.

Calculating the Insurance Fees

Once you start the procedure to quit the National Health Insurance, your remaining insurance fees will be calculated at that time as well. In case you have already paid all the fees in one go, you can have the amount you have overpaid refunded. It can take about 3 – 4 days until you receive the refund amount, so make sure to start the procedure in advance. If, on the other hand, there are still fees left you have to pay, you will receive an invoice of the remaining fees, calculated until your departure, and you can pay in cash right then. However, note that the insurance fees can only calculated per month, not per day. For example, if your departure day is the 2nd of April, you would still have to pay the full amount for the month of April.

What to do in advance: Notification of Relocation

When leaving Japan, you need to inform your local government office about your move by submitting a tenshutsu todokede, a “notification of relocation”. Before starting the withdrawal procedure from the National Health Insurance or National Pension, first of all you need to submit this notification at the resident registration counter. If you fail to do this, you insurance or tax bills will continue to be issued, and nothing good will come from this, so make sure to submit this notice. Besides, if you plan on receiving your pension in one go after withdrawing, you need to be extra careful: unless you submit the relocation notification, you cannot receive your pension! You can submit this notice from 14 days before your departure date. Your personal number will be deleted once you relocate officially from Japan, but you will need to show it once you re-enter Japan one day. So after the number was deleted, take your notification card with you and store it together with your passport.

Summary

When leaving a country you have lived in for a while, things will be busy. Besides remembering to calculate the rest of your rent and utilities, there are countless things to take care of, so most people tend to postpone administrative issues until the very end. But if you actually leave the country without taking care of these things, you might end up being charged unnecessary fees. Once your departure date is decided, I recommend setting up plan to take care of these important procedures step by step!