Employees' Pension: How Much? A Table by Income and Years

The short answer: 5 million yen a year for 40 years gives about 1,944,000 yen a year (162,000 yen a month). The quick table

The table below adds the full Basic Pension (40 years of contributions) to the Employees' Pension calculated from your annual income and your years of coverage. Figures are per year, with the monthly amount in brackets. They are this site's estimates and are gross, before tax and insurance premiums.

Assumptions: all coverage falls on or after April 2003 (multiplier 5.481/1,000), a revaluation rate of 1.0, average standard remuneration = annual income divided by 12, a Basic Pension at the full 847,300 yen for 40 years of contributions, and no dependent spouse supplement (加給年金), transitional addition, early claiming or deferral. Running the MHLW's model pension (average standard remuneration of 455,000 yen over 40 years) through the same formula gives a figure about 1.5% above the published one, so treat the real amounts as slightly lower than this table.

Even with only 20 years in the Employees' Pension, your Basic Pension is the full amount as long as the 40 years are filled in around it through the National Pension (as a Category 1 or Category 3 insured person). Conversely, every year of non-payment or non-coverage cuts the Basic Pension by about 21,000 yen (847,300 yen divided by 40).

The formula in three steps: average standard remuneration x 5.481/1,000 x months of coverage

The formula for the earnings-related portion of the Employees' Pension, as given in the Japan Pension Service's "Old-age Pension Guide, fiscal 2026 edition", is as follows[Japan Pension Service].

1. Work out your average standard remuneration. Take the standard monthly remuneration and the standard bonus amount for every month you were covered, multiply them by the "revaluation rate" that restates them in present-day value, add them up and divide by the number of months of coverage. Your annual income including bonuses, divided by 12, is a good proxy.
2. Multiply by 5.481/1,000. This is the multiplier for periods on or after April 2003. For periods up to March 2003 you multiply the "average standard monthly remuneration", which excludes bonuses, by 7.125/1,000.
3. Multiply by the months of coverage. Forty years is 480 months. If you keep working at a company until 70, those months are added on too.

Income tax, resident tax, National Health Insurance premiums and long-term care insurance premiums come out of that, so what actually reaches you is 10 to 20% lower. Tax on pensions is covered in tax on pensions and the final tax return, and the take-home view of how to claim is in how much your take-home really rises if you defer your pension.

Double the income, only 1.56 times the pension. Above about 10.4 million yen it stops growing

Going from 5 million to 10 million yen doubles your income, but with 40 years of coverage the pension goes from 1,944,000 yen to 3,040,000 yen, which is only 1.56 times. The reason is that the 847,300 yen of Basic Pension is a flat amount unrelated to income. Put the other way round, the lower your income, the bigger the Basic Pension's share and the better your return on the premiums you paid.

On top of that, Employees' Pension premiums have a ceiling: standard monthly remuneration is capped at 650,000 yen (grade 32) and the standard bonus amount at 1.5 million yen per payment[Japan Pension Service]. Above a monthly salary of 650,000 yen the premiums stop rising, and so does the pension. Counting a monthly salary plus two bonuses a year, the flattening begins at an annual income of about 10.4 million yen (the cap rises to 680,000 yen from September 2027 and to 750,000 yen in September 2029).

What people actually receive: 151,142 yen a month on the Employees' Pension, 59,431 yen on the National Pension

According to the MHLW's "Overview of Employees' Pension Insurance and National Pension operations, fiscal 2024", people receiving an old-age pension from the Employees' Pension (Category 1) receive an average of 151,142 yen a month, including the Basic Pension. Among those aged 65 and over it is 173,033 yen for men and 114,797 yen for women, which is the gap in years of coverage and in wages showing through directly. The average old-age pension for people with the National Pension alone is 59,431 yen a month[MHLW].

The "model pension (モデル年金)" the MHLW publishes each year covers two people, a husband who worked 40 years on an average standard remuneration of 455,000 yen and a wife who was a full-time homemaker, and for fiscal 2026 it is 237,279 yen a month (up 4,495 yen on the previous year). The fiscal 2026 revision splits the two tiers, at plus 1.9% for the Basic Pension and plus 2.0% for the earnings-related portion of the Employees' Pension, with the macroeconomic indexation adjustment (minus 0.2% on the Basic Pension) triggered for the seventh time[MHLW, fiscal 2026 pension revision]. Against price growth of 3.2%, pensions rose by less, so in real terms they continue to shrink.

How to read the annual pension statement: a record under 50, a projection at 50 and over

The pension figure on the annual pension statement (Nenkin Teikibin) that arrives in your birthday month every year means different things depending on your age[Japan Pension Service].

If you are under 50 and want to know your future amount, Nenkin Net has a detailed projection feature where you can enter your expected future income and retirement age. The main reason the statement looks small is that it leaves out the years you have not yet been covered for, so the quick table is the closer picture of your future.

Three ways to increase it: stay covered longer, defer, fill the gaps

1. Keep working under Employees' Pension coverage past 60. You can be covered up to 70, and on an annual income of 5 million yen every extra year adds about 27,000 yen a year (416,667 yen x 5.481/1,000 x 12). From April 2026 the threshold for the pension reduction for working pensioners rose to 650,000 yen, so working while drawing a pension is less likely to cut it (the working pensioner threshold rises to 650,000 yen).
2. Defer. Every month you put it off adds 0.7%, which is 42% at 70 and 84% at 75. Early claiming goes the other way at minus 0.4% a month (for those born on or after 2 April 1962). You can check the break-even point in early claiming versus deferral: which age wins and the simulator.
3. Fill in unpaid or exempted National Pension periods. Each year of non-payment cuts the Basic Pension by about 21,000 yen. Exempted periods can be paid up within 10 years, and when a student payment deferral is paid up later, a parent who pays it gets the social insurance premium deduction for it (National Pension exemptions and deferrals).

For people on a small pension there is also the pension recipient support benefit, paid on top of the pension (5,620 yen a month, subject to an income test) (the pension recipient support benefit in 2026).

Frequently asked questions

Summary

• Pension benefits have two tiers: the basic old-age pension (the full fiscal 2026 amount is ¥847,300 a year) and the old-age employees' pension.
• The employees' pension portion is calculated as average standard remuneration × 5.481/1,000 × months of enrollment. For an annual income of ¥5 million over 40 years, the total comes to about ¥1.94 million a year.
• Even if income doubles, the pension only increases by 1.56 times, due to the ¥650,000 cap on standard monthly remuneration, which kicks in at an annual income of about ¥10.4 million.
• The average benefit is ¥151,142 a month for employees' pension recipients, and ¥59,431 a month for those with only the National Pension.
• The Pension Payment Record Notice (nenkin teiki-bin) shows actual accrued amounts for those under 50 and projected amounts for those 50 and older. Ways to increase pension income include working longer, deferring benefits, or filling gaps in contribution history.

Reference links (sources)

This article is based on the materials below. The quick table is this site's estimate; for an accurate projection of your own, check Nenkin Net.

• Japan Pension Service, Old-age Pension Guide, fiscal 2026 edition (the earnings-related formula, the full Basic Pension, the dependent spouse supplement)
• MHLW, On the fiscal 2026 pension revision (23 January 2026)
• MHLW, Overview of Employees' Pension Insurance and National Pension operations, fiscal 2024 (average monthly pension amounts)
• Japan Pension Service, Employees' Pension Insurance premiums (the caps on standard monthly remuneration and the standard bonus amount)
• Japan Pension Service, the annual pension statement (Nenkin Teikibin)

Note: this article is general information. An individual pension amount varies with your coverage record, the revaluation rates and your date of birth.