patio11, no idea if this is applicable in Japan, but in certain conditions here in Italy (you work as an independent consultant), you have to pay into Social Security rather than the Italian equivalent. This saved me a bundle of money, but it's not a widely known fact, and I didn't realize it before I found an accountant that knows how to deal with financial stuff for US persons living in Italy. Worth looking into for other Americans living abroad. I found that H&R Block had an office near the US base in Vicenza with a guy that knows both systems pretty well. It was a very happy discovery for me, because I've always felt that the US-based guys were just kind of guessing about how things worked with my living abroad.
Yeah, I pay into Japanese SS and am exempted from the US version due to the US-Japan Social Security Totalization Agreement. Figuring this out was not exactly trivial for me, and absolutely mystified the local clerks in Ogaki.
