NENKIN.

WTF Is Going ON? I MAY Have an Answer.

Late Monday the 16th my wife paid the back due payments for my pension. She printed the receipts from the online payment “service”. The letter accompanying the bills stated that if not paid by the 17th or other arrangements made by that date, procedures to seize the house and car would be initiated. Friday, the 20th, an A4 sized envelope from the pension office arrived. It too had three bills to get caught up on the pension payments going back 2 years. They dates differed a bit as we are now in December payment period. I showed it to my wife who read it and told me that it states that if payment had already been made to not pay again but please inform the pension office of the fact. It also gave Dec 27th as the date that it must be paid in full or they will move to take the house and car.

Given my experiences, not just with nenkin, in Japan and what some have reported their various city offices have told them when they inquired, I believe I have enough pieces of the puzzle to understand the complete picture.

I have reported what I have read and been told on how Japan treats those who are delinquent in payments to the national health system. Others have made trips to their city offices and were told information that does not match. I now believe they do match. What does not match is what those victimized by the overarching system and those who are in the system understand the system’s statement to mean. In my case, years ago I received a letter from the pension office here demanding I join the pension system and pay a large amount in back payments. The demands were clearly illegal, violating the statute on what they were then allowed to demand. I was told by my wife, a JN who knew the laws on this issue at the time to ignore it as the damned was illegal. Suddenly this year, another letter arrives. This too demanded joining the pension system, start monthly payments and pay 14 years worth of back payments. Clearly illegal again. These folks are not dealing in good faith, they are lying and violating the law doing so. Not a group to be taken seriously.

Then more notifications arrive. As the last two were illegal attempts at shakedowns, and more importantly perhaps to me, I cannot afford any amount they say I owe, these were kept but left unopened until the recent arrival of a yellow envelope with red writing and statements upon it stating it contains info important to not just the addressee, me, but also to the head of household, the homeowner and all members of the household. This contained actual bills for the last two years of missed payments and the threat to take the house and car if not paid by the 17th. Yet, despite payment being made, the system did not register in time to prevent the latest mailing with the same demands but with a due date 10 days latter.

To me and all those I know who have dealt with the same over the national health scheme, this does not constitute any kind of due process nor proper notification. I mean, they lie over how much they can claim against those behind in their payments. What if I, like the JN I read about who could not make the payments, too was unable to pay? I guess I would have had a week of intense worry until this last communication arrived. Then what? Who would take these mailings seriously? First, they tried twice to scare me into paying many times more than statute allowed them to demand. Then they send an “Okay okay, okay, you pay this much” (still large but minuscule compared the decade plus worth they initially demanded.) “by this date or we take all you own!”, followed by another letter less than a week later with new bills with the same threat but a drop dead date that is 10 days later than the first do or die date. This is begging to be ignored. However, in the minds of the mental midgets who occupy bureaucracies around the world, THIS constitutes proper procedure and notification.

I wonder what would have happened if I did not withdraw my pay each payday. When would they have seized money from my bank account? Going from those I know personally and those I have read about, that would have been the first indication I would have had that I even owed this, believing as I did that the taxes I pay covered it.

The progression seems to go thus, after one has been determined to be sufficiently behind in their nation health care scheme or pension payments, the city office raids the bank account. If the balance in the account is insufficient to cover what they say one owes, they send the series of letters as laid out above. If this does not force the delinquent to fork over enough dough, they raid their residence and take all cash discovered and everything of value. If the seized assets still do not meet the required amount, they take the home and any motor vehicles and the family becomes homeless. This being what the automatons view as correct, any inquiries about this will generate the responses I have reported on earlier, which will seem to be at odds with reports of those who have either personally dealt with this or know of those who have.

Ugly. Dirty and rotten. If I had learned any of this while studying here, I never would have returned to work here.