Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2013 July 3 - 9 [POLITICS]

Receiving pension benefits at age 65 is ‘too early’: Hashimoto

Japan Restoration Party co-head Hashimoto Toru, also serving as Osaka City mayor, has insisted that it is inappropriate for people to receive pension benefits starting at the age of 65.

Hashimoto said in a TV interview aired on July 1, “My generation, or the people aged 44 or under, should not receive benefits until they are 68 to 70 years old.” He showed his support for the Abe administration’s plan to raise the starting age for pension payments.

Regarding the medical care system for the elderly, the outspoken mayor said, “Although the elderly aged 70 to 74 are in principle supposed to pay 20% of their medical costs at a hospital, they pay only 10% of that thanks to the special measures consuming 220 billion yen in taxpayers’ money every year.” He claimed that the amount of money the elderly pay for medical costs should be doubled immediately.