Social Security Agreements for a Chef Sent Abroad from Japan

Japan has social security agreements in force with 24 countries as of 2 June 2026, so a chef a Japanese company sends abroad on secondment can often stay in the Japanese pension system only, avoiding double contributions, once the employer files a certificate of coverage. This applies only while the chef stays employed by the Japanese company; a local hire abroad joins the host country's scheme regardless. Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the UAE have no agreement, so a posting there gets no relief.

1. Is this your page?

Two lines to check first. Secondment: the chef keeps their Japanese employment contract and the Japanese company pays some or all of the salary while working abroad. Read on. Local hire: an overseas company hires the chef directly, with no ongoing Japanese employer. There is no agreement to apply for; the chef joins the host scheme from day one and Japanese coverage simply ends. Go to secondment vs local hire instead.

2. The two problems an agreement solves

According to the Japan Pension Service, social security agreements exist for two reasons.

• Preventing double coverage: an employee sent abroad by a Japanese company might otherwise have to join both countries' schemes and pay contributions twice. The agreement decides which country's scheme applies.
• Totalising pension periods: where a pension needs a minimum contribution period, periods in both countries can be added together to help meet it.

The agreements with the UK, South Korea, China and Italy cover only the prevention of double contributions, not totalisation.

3. Countries with and without an agreement

Agreements were in force with these 24 countries as of 2 June 2026 (MHLW, confirmed against the Japan Pension Service directly).

Beyond these 24, a few more agreements are signed but not yet in force or under negotiation. We found conflicting dates for these across official pages and could not settle on one we trust; check the MHLW status page for the current list before assuming any country not above is covered.

Several major restaurant markets have no agreement at all, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and the UAE. A Japanese company sending a chef to any of these gets no coordination under an agreement.

4. Which schemes each agreement covers

Each agreement covers different schemes; anything not covered is applied under each country's own law, so an agreement does not necessarily mean no local social insurance at all.

Take the UK: pension may stay in Japan, but any scheme outside the agreement follows UK law regardless.

5. Who joins which system: the five year rule

The basic rule is that a worker joins only the scheme of the country where they work; the exception is a temporary assignment by a Japanese employer.

Restaurant openings slip. If the plan changes from "under five years" to "over five years" partway through, both governments must agree to extend the Japanese-only period; there is no automatic right to one. Apply well before the five-year mark, and expect the host authorities to want evidence the delay was genuinely unforeseeable (a lease delay, a licensing hold-up), not a plan simply revised after the fact.

• Australia: even if the assignment is expected from the start to exceed five years, the employee stays in the Japanese system only for the first five.
• United States: to be exempt from the US system, the employee must, as a rule, have worked or lived in Japan under Japanese social insurance for at least six continuous months immediately before the assignment. A chef hired and sent to a US branch the following month can fail this test.
• Self-employed: the agreements with Australia, India and China do not cover the self-employed. An owner-chef running their own restaurant abroad should check country by country.

If an extension is refused, a special arrangement lets the employee stay in the Japanese employees' pension voluntarily while the host country's scheme becomes compulsory.

6. What going without an agreement costs

The value of an agreement is the contribution you avoid paying twice. Japan's employees' pension and health insurance premiums are a fixed percentage of the chef's standard monthly remuneration, split between employer and employee, and they do not stop just because there is no agreement. Send the same chef to a country with its own compulsory scheme for foreign employees, and the employer typically pays its share of that scheme too, on top, for as long as the posting runs.

Hong Kong is the clearest case here: no agreement with Japan, and its Mandatory Provident Fund applies to most employees, secondees included, once a posting runs past a short initial period. We could not verify the current MPF rate and income cap this round; get the figures from the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority before budgeting a Hong Kong secondment. Singapore and the UAE, by contrast, do not require foreign employees to join a local pension at all, so an agreement matters less there in practice, though the five-year and evidence points in section 5 still apply.

7. Filing a certificate of coverage

To be exempt from the host country's scheme on a temporary assignment, the employee needs a certificate of coverage (tekiyo shomeisho) showing they are in the Japanese system.

1. The Japanese employer applies, from about six months before the planned start date. File as early as this window allows; no guaranteed processing time is published.
2. For employees' pension, mail goes to the Japan Pension Service's social security agreement section in Chofu, Tokyo; in-person submissions and enquiries go to the nearest pension office.
3. The employee gives the certificate to the workplace abroad and shows it to the authorities when asked.
4. To extend the assignment, the employer files to continue or extend the certificate before it expires. A lost certificate needs a reissue application.

Where an employee instead joins only the host scheme, the employer files a loss-of-coverage notice with the pension office, selecting "social security agreement" as the reason and showing evidence of local enrolment.

8. Common cases in Japanese restaurants

For country staffing plans, see our Los Angeles and Sydney opening guides.

General information, not social insurance advice. Each agreement works differently and they are amended from time to time. Check the official sources below, verified in September 2026, and consult the pension office or a sharoshi (labour and social security attorney).