Japan Press Weekly

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2016 November 2 - 8 [POLITICS]

Diet starts discussing pension cuts bill

The House of Representatives at its plenary session on November 1 began discussing a bill to delete the present index-linked public pension rule. Japanese Communist Party legislator Takahashi Chizuko criticized the bill as “unforgivable because it will unilaterally break a state promise that pension benefits go up or at least stay as they are when commodity prices increase”.

The Democratic Party also expressed its opposition to the bill by saying that it will fail to protect current and future pensioners’ livelihoods.

Under the existing rule, pension benefit payments are adjusted on a sliding scale based on inflation and the wage rate. Indexation is a fundamental advantage of the national pension scheme, the government once explained to the general public.

The proposed bill, however, will stop cost adjustments in pensions in accordance with inflation and will allow the government to even reduce the amount of pension benefits.

JCP Takahashi said, “This is an act of betrayal of the general public who has expected indexed pension benefits,” and added, “The idea of the bill violates the constitutional rights to property and to a minimum standard of living.”

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in reply said that the bill is set to equalize the pension burden between the elderly and the working generation. Saying this, he justified the idea of virtually saving present pension payouts for the future.

The JCP representative demanded that the government take measures to bail out people who are left without pension coverage or with low pension benefits. She also demanded that the authorities immediately consider creating a program to guarantee a minimum amount in pension benefits.