<declan_murphy@hotmail.com> wrote in message

> > -the larger % of *giving up Japan* occurs in the 6 first months
>
> And maybe even less. So what?

I mean that probably does not decrease so much after the first times, and
your figures after 5 yrs or 10 yrs don't differ so much than after 3 yrs.
There is a sort of trial period.
What are the rates for other countries ? About my compatriots, I don't think
that's not so different. My aunt works at the social security and deals with
the files of expat with countries having reciprocity (mostly E.U.), she
doesn't have many files of people coming back after more than 3 yrs. When I
passed the lined, she announced me : "So now, that's finished for you in
France."

> > -most people first get a short time visa when they arrive (1 year or
less).
>
> All work visas at the moment are initially for 1 year or less.

The  guy asked if I wanted 3 yrs when I brought my C.O.E. , and I got the
3yr visa. Coworkers got only 1 yr. Immigration decides.

> Plenty. I don't know any foreigners who haven't paid in their pension
> contributions, or any companies not complying with the law regarding
> deducting contributions each month.

That's standard to skip it in the eikaiwa industry for 99.9999% of their
foreign staff... A sort of unofficial collective negociation. That concerns
a lot of gaigins.
I read in the new that was changing, but in Osaka nobody seems aware of the
new trend.

> Which OECD countries are so backward as to not have portable pension
> funds/superannuation or pension treaties with other OECD countries?

Your countries ?

Japan has signed with my country the same style of agreement we already had
with the US. And that doesn't change a lot of things. I tried years ago to
make the paperwork about the time I worked in Sepponia, and that was so
complicated as they take you back from one side what you got from the other,
conditions I'll never meet at my level of income...

>The  issue is not unfunded pensions, but portability.

What that makes ? I'll never get enough years to meet the conditions to get
more than minimum. No matter the country, for me,  contribution=tax.

On the other hand, the first class expats never had any concern about the
matter as their companies *rebuys* them at their national system for all
the years they spend abroad.

Kuri