Pension Refund Process
Application for Lump-sum withdrawal must be made within 2 years of you leaving Japan, and it will be sent to an account you designate in your home country. It is not clear in the General Information Handbook if you can designate an account in 3rd country that you intend to go to but from what I hear, the CIR/PA from 2 years ago has not yet claimed his back because he has not yet gone back to his home country.
Your lump-sum payment WILL be taxed, and this will be refunded but to a Japanese “Tax-representative’s” account in Japan. Refund of this must be applied for within 5 years.
For those staying a fourth year and beyond
As for what would happen with your 4th year pension contributions and if you could get pay-back for 4 years rolled into one; I ain’t got a clue I’m afraid. What is important though is that your tax representative is clued up on your intentions and maybe even your local tax office. (It is recommended that your tax-representative is your supervisor or BOE.) Being Japan, they are likely to have a fit of confusion if they were to realize that you were back in the country and also there may well be some restrictions as they want to be absolutely certain that you are out of the country before they pay. CLAIR will actually answer questions about the refund etc. in general so I recommend that you ring them and ask to speak to a JET PC if you have any queries:03-3591-5350