Japan Press Weekly

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2014 December 10 - 16 [POLITICS]

Gov’t purchase of stocks by pension funds benefits financial sector

Japan’s Abe government has given the financial industry 22.2 billion yen in public pension funds while imposing cuts in pension benefits and higher rates of pension premiums on the general public.

Deciding to utilize accumulated pension reserves to maintain higher stock prices, the Abe administration is spending collected premiums to increase its purchase of stocks. The government in FY 2013 used 22.2 billion yen from the pension funds as commission charges paid to banks and securities companies which are delegated to buy stocks.

If the government suffers losses on the stock investments, as measures to compensate the losses, it will try to again force the general public to pay more pension premiums and accept smaller pension benefit payments.

The Japanese Communist Party demands that the government stop spending people’s money for the purchase of risky, speculative financial assets.