Ruling parties bulldoze pension cut bill through Lower House committee

The ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties used their force of numbers to bulldoze a bill to cut pension benefit and increase the insurance premiums through the House of Representatives Health, Labor, and Welfare Committee on April 28.

The vote came after only 30 hours of committee discussion.

The government is proposing a stage-by-stage increase in the premiums for 14 straight years and cut pension payments without parliamentary discussions.

Opposition Japanese Communist, Democratic, and Social Democratic parties protested against the vote and demanded that the House of Representative speaker send the bill back to the committee for discussion.

Before the bill was put to vote, Yamaguchi Tomio, JCP representative, said that planned increases in the premiums will undermine the pension system, and that a 15 percent across-the-board cut in benefits will threaten the right to subsistence, and that the consumption tax rate will be increased ostensibly to fund the pension system. The JCP lawmaker demanded that the bill be thoroughly discussed.

On the same day, hundreds of people carried out sit-ins around the Diet building in opposition to the adverse revision of the pension system. (end)