I believe the following information is correct. Short version: the “national” pension is not the same as the “old system” pension.
Long version:
- The National Pension Act does not apply to foreigners. Art. 1 states it applies to citizens, and foreigners are not mentioned anywhere in the Act.
- The Labor Pension Act does not apply to foreigners, except for those listed in Art. 7 Par. 1 Subpar. 2 and 3 (basically foreign spouses).
- The Labor Standards Act applies to foreigners. There was a ministerial interpretation decades ago confirming this, and there is nothing in the Act to exclude foreigners from any part of it.*
- The Labor Insurance Act applies to foreigners. Art. 6 Par. 3 states that foreigners are included.
The terms “old system” and “new system” refer to the LSA pension and LPA pension respectively. I’ve never dealt with the NPA or the other insurance systems (military etc.), but you can see in the BLI’s relatively useful pages about retirement that the NPA is listed separately. For an explanation of the “old system” (LSA pension), click on “Labor Pension Program Established by the Labor Standards Act of 1984(Old System)”.
The MOL’s English website used to have some information about retirement but is now empty, which hopefully means it’s finally being redesigned.
However, if we put aside the nationality question, these systems still do not apply to everyone.
- The NPA applies only to those listed in Art. 7, so it excludes anyone participating in “other related social insurances”. I don’t know how broadly that’s defined.
- The LSA applies to over 90% of the private sector (according to the MOL) as well as some people in the public sector, but it’s a question of what job a person has. For example, buxiban teachers are covered, and some private school teachers are covered, but apparently public school teachers are still not covered. Anyone covered by the LSA should be eligible for an LSA pension if not covered by the LPA; labor insurance (LIA) is separate.
- The LPA applies to people who are covered by the LSA but subject to the “new system” (basically people hired after the switch in 2005), of course excluding foreigners other than spouses. (The LSA still applies, except for the articles involving severance pay and retirement.)
- The LIA applies to people listed in Art. 6 and Art. 8, basically meaning most people who work for medium or large companies. This is a little confusing and was already found, years ago, to be incompatible with the ICESCR because it lets some people fall through the cracks. There is also a BLI interpretation that expands coverage by including everyone who works for a company that already has labor insurance (i.e. if one employee is covered, all employees need to be covered).
*One more problem: residency rights for foreigners. The LSA clearly states that a labor contract can be for a fixed or non-fixed term (and the Civil Code says the same about employment contracts), but the Employment Service Act states that a foreigner who does not have permanent residency cannot have a non-fixed term contract. There is a civil case about this being reviewed by the Supreme Court. Edit: the SC decided the ESA trumps the LSA, so a foreigner with a non-permanent ARC cannot have a truly non-fixed term labor/employment contract.
In theory, it shouldn’t make a difference: if you’re covered by one of the pension systems and work the necessary number of years, you should be able to obtain the pension, provided that you apply for it before you pass the deadline. But obviously you don’t want to sign a contract thinking it’s for a non-fixed term (i.e. until you retire) and then find out your employer’s obligation ends sooner than expected.