Government submits bills to adversely revise pension system

The Koizumi Cabinet on February 10 approved pension-related bills that will increase public pension premiums every year while cutting benefits on the grounds that the birth rate is falling. The bills were submitted to the House of Representatives Budget Committee on the same day.

The bills, if enacted, will allow the government to increase every year the rate of premiums and cut benefits without parliamentary approval.

Employees insured by the public pension scheme will have to pay about 10,000 yen more a year in premiums until FY 2017. Meanwhile, benefits will decrease to 50.2 percent from the present 59.4 of the employee's salary for the "model household" (husband retiring after 40 years of service with housewife), a decrease of about 440,000 yen from the present level.

Koike Akira, Japanese Communist Party Policy Commission chair, published a statement on the same day to criticize the government plan saying, "The planned pension cut will even affect those who live on 50,000 yen a month in benefits under the national pension scheme. This is tantamount to denying their right to live."

Pointing out that the shortfall in the pension finance has been caused by corporate restructuring and the government policy encouraging it, Koike explained the JCP position that the government must increase its share of pension premiums to 50 percent from the present 33 percent and establish a sustainable pension system and create jobs by responsively using the 150 trillion yen pension fund. (end)