JCP proposes bill for urgently solving pension issue

   The Japanese Communist Party on June 27 announced an urgent proposal to solve the pension issue, which will require the government to send all pension account holders their premium payment records. The proposal was made in the form of an amendment to the ruling parties’ bill to remove the statute of limitations on payment of pension benefits.

   At a press conference in the Diet building on the same day, JCP Policy Commission Chair Koike Akira said, “Simply removing the statute of limitations will fall short of guaranteeing the payment of pension benefits. The bill needs to clearly state measures, which the government can assume responsibility for, to enable all pension holders to receive what they are entitled to.”

   The JCP’s amendment calls on the government to immediately send pension premium payment records to all pension account holders, including current benefit recipients and those who are paying or used to pay pension premiums.

   It also calls on the government to investigate and identify those unidentified pension records within a year.

   Referring to Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Nakagawa Hidenao’s recent remark admitting the need to send premium payment records to pension account holders, Koike said, “His remark is important. This is what the JCP has been proposing from the onset. In order to cope with the public anxiety, the government should implement this measure immediately.”

   “This is the type of issue that requires all parties to cooperate. We ask other parties to support our proposal,” he said.

   He also stressed that the government bill to dissolve and privatize the Social Insurance Agency should be scrapped, saying, “Dissolving the agency without solving the pension problem amounts to the worst type of evasion of responsibility.”                                - Akahata, June 28, 2007