Government hid birthrate for passage of pension cut bill

The government had kept changes in the birthrate from the public to enable a smooth passage of the pension cut bill through the Diet. This was revealed on June 22.

The new law that will increase pension insurance premiums and cut benefits was enacted based on the assumption that the birthrate will be 13.0 per 1000 women in 2007, down from the 13.2 per 1000 in 2003.

But the fact is that in 2003 the birthrate had already hit the lowest rate at 12.9 per 1000 persons. Since the real ratio is lower than the assumption, further cuts in pension benefits and heavier premiums will likely be imposed on the people again.

During the Diet deliberation on the pension bill, opposition parties repeatedly demanded that the government disclose the birthrate figures, but the government kept rejecting it by saying, "The data is still to be compiled."

In a comment published on June 22, Koike Akira, Japanese Communist Party Policy Commission chair, criticized the birthrate cover-up as follows:

"Today, the government admitted that for 17 days until the pension cut bill was passed through the Diet, it had withheld a survey finding that the birthrate in 2003 was 12.9. It is obvious that the ruling parties intentionally hid the real birthrate data thinking that the pension bill would be endangered if the public knew the real figures.

"The government has said that 'under the law, you will feel secured for the next 100 years because pension benefits will be at least 50% of the present workers' average income and premiums ceiling will be fixed.' But this has proved to be untrue in the Upper House discussions. The government must be held responsible for deceiving the public and withholding this data in order to proceed with voting on the bill.

"The JCP demands that the new pension law, which was railroaded through in an outrageous manner, should not come into effect and the pension reform bill should be worked over again with a national debate. The JCP will make every effort to inform the public concerning into this matter in the coming House Councilors election." (end)