🧾 Foreign Pension Life Proof Gets Easier

❓ What's changing?

To keep receiving a foreign public pension while living in Japan, you must periodically submit a life certificate (proof that you are alive) to the pension body of that country. Some of these forms require certification by a third party such as a municipal mayor, and in Japan whether to provide that certification has been left to each municipality's own judgment. As a result, recipients complained that counters refused to certify their forms, while municipalities said foreign-language life certificates are hard to understand and costly to translate. The Administrative Evaluation Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) surveyed the situation and, in July 2025, notified the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to (1) negotiate with foreign pension bodies so that attaching a copy of the resident record (juminhyo) could replace municipal certification, and (2) have life certificate forms and their Japanese translations posted on the Japan Pension Service website. In the first follow-up, published on August 27, 2026, MIC confirmed that after talks with five countries, Germany allows the case to be handled through a diplomatic mission or a copy of the resident record when Japanese public bodies do not accept the certification procedure, and that an app-based life verification scheme has been introduced. Links to the Tokyo embassy websites of Switzerland and Germany, which carry form information with Japanese text, are now posted on the Japan Pension Service website.

👥 Who is affected?

• ●Anyone living in Japan who receives a foreign public pension from Germany, Switzerland or another country (regardless of nationality)
• ●Foreign residents in Japan who remain enrolled in a pension scheme of their home country or a country where they previously worked
• ●People whose life certificate requires certification by a municipal mayor and who were turned away at the counter
• ●Family members preparing foreign pension paperwork on someone else's behalf
• ●Municipal counter staff unsure how to handle life certificates written in a foreign language

🌏 Impact on foreign residents

For foreign residents in Japan who draw a pension from their home country or a country where they once worked, the life certificate is a routine piece of paperwork that arrives on a regular cycle. Until now, when a municipal counter refused to certify the form, many people had no idea what the alternative was and ended up travelling to an embassy in Tokyo or translating a foreign-language form themselves. This follow-up confirms that, for German pensions, a diplomatic mission or a copy of the resident record can be used when Japanese public bodies do not accept the certification procedure, and that an app-based life verification scheme exists. For Switzerland and Germany, form information with Japanese text can now be reached via the Japan Pension Service website. If a counter turns you away, the key to keeping your pension flowing is to check which alternative route your pension body accepts.