Pension premiums will be raised by 1.5 times

Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Sakaguchi Chikara on September 5 announced a draft proposal of the pension reform in FY 2004 which is aimed at forcing the people to pay more in premiums for less pension benefits.

The draft proposal calls for an increase in employees' pension premiums of by 1.5 times to 10 percent of their annual income from the present 6.79 percent.

National pension premiums will also be raised to 18,000 yen per month from the present 13,300 yen.

The ministry proposes that benefits of employees' pensions be automatically reduced from the present 59 percent to around 55 percent on average of after-tax annual income. (end)