Does (not) paying taxes, insurance, bills, or receiving refunds affect naturalization?

Today's questions from the internet comes from a few sources.

The good news is that none of the money "problems" listed in this post will likely permanently disqualify someone from naturalizing to Japanese, unless the lack of payment is egregious enough that the State of Japan (or a private individual or company) decided to take legal action against you (such as fining you, seized funds from accounts via a bank lien, or worse). The logic for this falls under the "good character" requirement for naturalization.

The questions are on the following themes:
  • If you haven't paid for Japanese national health insurance (国民保険 {kokumin hoken}) or Japanese company employee health insurance (社会保険 {shakai hoken}) for some or all of your months while being a resident of Japan, are you disqualified from naturalizing?
  • If you haven't paid your taxes for some or all of your months while being a resident in Japan, are you disqualified from naturalizing?
  • If you haven't paid into the pension system (年金制度 {nenkin seido}) for some or all of the months while you were a resident of Japan, are you disqualified from naturalizing?
  • If you, at sometime in the past, returned back to your country and received the official one time lump sum refund for the national pension (脱退一時金 {dattai ichijikin}), but then came back to Japan, are you disqualified from naturalizing?
  • If you haven't paid for your NHK public television even though you owned a television (set, tuner, or a Japanese "Galápagos" One-Seg (ワンセグ {wan segu}) phone capable of receiving digital broadcasts for mobile devices), are you disqualified from naturalizing?
The bad news is that as part of the naturalization vetting process, not only do they check your complete tax and pension payment history (which includes Japanese health insurance), they also check your bank transactions, so they will know about money due to the Japanese government, and you will have to "square up" with each of the institutions before you will be allowed to naturalize. Depending on your situation and the amount of time you've been delinquent, this can be quite expensive and a deal breaker for some.
All residents or Japan, be them Japanese or non-Japanese, must be enrolled in either national health insurance or employee public health insurance, regardless of whether one has private or overseas or alternate or supplemental insurance. It's a common misunderstanding, but having health insurance from overseas, even if it provides 100% coverage in Japan, does not allow one to opt out of the national health insurance or the employee health insurance. Being self-employed or unemployed or under-employed also does not opt one out of the insurance duty (how much you must pay is scaled according to your means).
As for the national pension, Japan has a system for pension payments where foreign residents who stayed continuously in Japan for over six months can receive up to two years worth of a refund after leaving Japan and letting their status of residence (SoR; 在留資格 {zairyū shikaku}) / re-entry permission (再入国許可 {sai-nyūkoku kyoka}) lapse. If you happen to come back to Japan and then decide to naturalize to Japan later in your life, that's perfectly fine (I did it). Of course, leaving Japan for an extended period of time may reset the "continuous physical residency" test of five (three or one year with 簡易帰化 {kan'i kika}) years and you may have to re-log those years again before applying.
If you do decide to apply for the one-time lump sum refund payment of the Japanese pension, make sure you do it before you naturalize; having Japanese nationality (including people with multiple nationalities and people that have naturalized) disqualifies you from receiving this government refund.
The final question is from someone who asked me if somebody can be denied naturalization if they haven't been properly paying the NHK television dues. Japan's public television & radio station broadcasting company (which also does technology R&D and produces content), like some countries, is quasi-public in that it relies on viewers to pay monthly fees in addition to tax money.

The answer is no, you are not required to be up to date or get up to date on back payments for all your sumo and news, educational, and periodic drama viewing. It won't affect your naturalization, unless they find out, which would only happen if somehow or someway your lack of payment got on records that naturalization inspects (official tax, pension, and bank statements).

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