Shakai Hoken (National Health Insurance)
From Eikaiwa Wiki
Shakai Hoken is a workplace-based insurance system in Japan which provides financial assistance to salaried workers of companies and to their dependent family members by paying insurance benefits in the event of sickness, injury, childbirth and death.
All residents in Japan are required to join the Public Social Welfare System in one form or another regardless of nationality. Premiums you pay and schemes you join will vary depending on employment status, income, company size, and scope of operations.
Salaried employees working full-time (or 75% of a full-time workers' schedule) pay into the "kosei nenkin" system, or the company employee pension system. These premiums are deducted from their pay.
Temporary workers contracted to work for a period of less than two months or those who are not defined as full-time workers are required to pay premiums into the 'kokumin nenkin' system, or the national pension system.
Contributors become eligible for retirement benefits when premiums have been paid for 300 months (25 years). These months do not need to be consecutive and can be received even after leaving Japan.
Since 1995, contributors to the company and national company system who have paid for more than six months can claim a refund upon leaving Japan. The refund varies depending on which system you join and how much your premiums are. The minimum refund under the national pension system is 39,900 yen (more than 6 months premiums but less than 12) and the maximum 239,400 yen (36 months premiums or more). There is a three year ceiling regardless of the length of time premiums were paid. Under the company employee pension, the refund depends on salary and is calculated by the Social Insurance Agency. This system also limits refunds to a three year ceiling.
[edit] Shakai Hoken and Eikaiwa Companies
At Nova, a fax sent to branches on May 16 stated that, from June 1, all Nova lessons will be shortened to 40 minutes, with two minutes either side for lesson planning and student evaluation. Lesson time would be a total of 44 minutes with the amount of unpaid free time between classes will be extended from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. Under Nova's new work time system, regular teachers would work just under 30 hours a week, while their bosses -- so-called titled instructors -- would work on 40-hour a week contracts, thereby making teachers ineligible for shakai hoken under the 75 percent work time rule. Teachers enrolled in the shakai hoken system will be required to continue working between classes.
Nova is estimated to be saving over 1 billion yen in premium payments each year by allowing foreign employees to enroll in insurance schemes, including its own JMA plan, outside of shakai hoken.
Metropolis magazine published a letter which was highly critical of the General Union that was purportedly from an English teacher. The Angela Smyth article used a fake name and a fake photograph. The result of the the metropolis article and coverage of the insurance issue in newspapers started what is now known as 'the insane shakai hoken debate'.
