Japan Press Weekly

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2007 May 30 - June 5 TOP3 [WELFARE]

Abe’s rampage is further deepening cabinet crisis: JCP Shii on forcible passage of pension bills

In defiance of the sharp public criticism of the government mismanagement of public pension, the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties on June 1 used their majority at the House of Representatives plenary session to bulldoze through the pension bills to dissolve and privatize the Social Insurance Agency and to lift the five-year statute of limitation for pension benefit claims.

The Japanese Communist, Democratic, and Social Democratic parties voted against the bills.

JCP representative Kasai Akira expressed his opposition to the bills before the vote. Criticizing the ruling parties’ measure to deal with the “lost pension” issue, Kasai pointed out that in order to correct the pension records the measure requires pension holders to voluntary apply for the correction of the records and to prove by themselves that they actually paid the premiums. “This measure will hamper the solution of the problem,” he stated.

The government and ruling parties are pushing ahead with the bill to dissolve the Social Insurance Agency without making any concrete proposal to effectively solve the problem. Kasai stated, “This amounts to evading state responsibility for the problem and may cause more losses of pension records.”

The bill will not only privatize pension management, but require the tax office to forcibly collect the pension premiums from pension holders in arrears in payment of premiums.

The opposition parties put no-confidence motions against the Rules and Administration Committee chair, Welfare Committee chair, and Welfare minister, but these were voted down.

JCP Chair Shii Kazuo at a press conference on the same day stated, “The rampage of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and the ruling parties is leading the Abe Cabinet to a looming crisis.”

The ruling parties used their majority twice in the same week to ram through bills. They also attempted to ram through a bill to adversely revise the National Public Service Law that will lift the ban on retired bureaucrats’ “parachuting” to private corporations.

The Abe Cabinet, whose support rate has already drastically declined due to the pension fiasco, is driven into a corner because of the suicide of former Agriculture Minister Matsuoka Toshikatu who Prime Minister Abe defended to the end.

Directing the LDP to ram through bills one after another, Abe is attempting to break through the difficulty by solely relying on the force of numbers.

However, his tactics will backfire on himself and the ruling bloc.

House of Representatives Speaker Kono Yohei expressed his anxiety in a Diet meeting on May 31, saying, “This situation damages the dignity of the Diet.” - Akahata, June 1 & 2, 2007