What changes
The 2025 pension reform law (Act No. 74 of 2025, promulgated 20 June 2025) and a cabinet order (Cabinet Order No. 442 of 2025) change the private pension limits in two steps.
From 1 April 2026, the rule that an employee's matching contribution to a corporate defined contribution (DC) plan could not exceed the employer's contribution was abolished. An employee can now contribute more than the employer, as long as the total stays within the plan limit. Plans that want to use this need a rule change.
From 1 December 2026, the limits rise:
- Corporate DC: 62,000 yen a month, up from 55,000 yen, less the equivalent of any defined benefit plan contributions.
- iDeCo for employees: 62,000 yen a month less all employer pension contributions. The separate caps of 20,000 yen (with a corporate pension) and 23,000 yen (without) go, so an employee with no corporate pension can put in 62,000 yen.
- iDeCo for the self-employed: 75,000 yen, up from 68,000 yen, together with the National Pension Fund.
- Age: iDeCo members, and people moving money in from a corporate plan, can keep contributing until 70 under a new category, provided they are not yet drawing the basic pension or iDeCo benefits.
Contributions remain fully deductible from income.
Who it applies to
Employers that run or are considering a corporate DC plan, and their employees. For employees with no corporate pension, iDeCo becomes much more useful.
Action for employers
- Decide on plan changes before December. Agree with your plan provider whether to raise employer contributions to the new limit or allow larger matching contributions, and amend the plan rules.
- Model employer and iDeCo room together. Every yen the employer contributes now reduces the employee's iDeCo room one for one.
- Tell employees in November. Many will want to raise iDeCo or matching contributions from December; give them the figures.
- Use it in senior offers. A full 62,000 yen a month in tax-deductible DC is a modest but real benefit to put in a package.
Sources
- Defined Contribution Pension Act, as amended by Act No. 74 of 2025; Cabinet Order No. 442 of 2025 (contribution limits).
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Pension Bureau notice of 30 June 2026 on ministerial ordinances in force 1 December 2026.
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, leaflet on the iDeCo changes from December 2026, and materials on private pension reform (matching contributions from April 2026).