Japan Press Weekly

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2015 May 27 - June 2 [WELFARE]

Cuts in pension benefits are unconstitutional: pensioners

Thousands of pensioners on May 29 filed a lawsuit nationwide, seeking the cancellation of the pension-cutting measure the state has taken and claiming such a measure is unconstitutional.

Adding together those who already filed, the number of plaintiffs reaches more than 3,000 in the district courts of Tokyo, Tottori, Tokushima, Yamaguchi, Hokkaido, and Shimane.

As for Tokyo, 526 pensioners have joined in a plaintiffs’ group. The group’s head, Kaneko Tamio at an inauguration meeting expressed his determination by saying, “I will do my best to overcome the division between young people and elderly people that has been created by the state. Let us take a lead in our struggle together with younger generations to change bad policies!”

The Abe administration implemented the cuts in pension benefits in October 2013. More than 120,000 pensioners under the initiative of the Japan Pensioners’ Union have filed a complaint in protest against this measure.

About eight million elderly people in Japan are forced to live on a 50,000-yen pension a month, but the government is going to further lower the benefits of the already-small pension.

Past related articles:
> 155K signatures opposing pension cuts submitted to gov’t [October 18, 2014]
> Over 110,000 elderly protest against cuts in pension benefits [February 1, 2014]
> More than 100,000 elderly file complaints about cuts in pension benefits [January 28, 2014]