LDP approves pension reform legislation
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Tuesday approved draft legislation for pension system reform at a meeting of the party's decision-making General Council.
The government aims to adopt the legislation at a Cabinet meeting Friday and submit it to the current session of the Diet, the country's parliament.
Before the General Council meeting, executives of the LDP and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, held talks, agreeing to work for the enactment of the legislation during the Diet session ending in June.
The government originally expected to introduce the legislation in March. But the move has been delayed because the LDP was reluctant to hold Diet debates on pensions, a hot topic, ahead of this summer's election for the House of Councilors, the upper chamber.
At the General Council meeting, former digital minister Taro Kono expressed opposition to the legislation as he seeks "radical reform." But he did not oppose its submission to the Diet.
Another attendee pointed to the need to listen to the voices of younger people, particularly members of the "ice age" generation who had trouble finding jobs after graduating from schools between around 1993 and 2004, ahead of the Upper House poll.
The main pillars of the legislation are expanding the coverage of the kōsei nenkin public pension program for corporate and government workers to include a wider range of part-time workers and reviewing the system of reducing benefits for elderly employees earning certain amounts of income.
The LDP planned to include in the legislation a hike in the basic pension benefit level using funds from the financially robust kōsei nenkin program and the state coffers. But it was removed after a series of objections.
The basic pension level is likely to be about 30% lower than now by the time when the ice age generation, now in their 40s to 50s, are in their 70s to 80s.
Many in the generation face the risk of old-age poverty as they would have to live mainly on the basic pensions after retirement, since many failed to win regular jobs and thus are not eligible for the kōsei nenkin program, which pays benefits that add to the basic pensions.
While some LDP lawmakers are reluctant to discuss pensions at the Diet, others have raised questions about the absence of the basic pension hike from the legislation.
In the opposition camp, Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, criticized the LDP, saying that the basic pension hike should be the most important element of the pension reform.
Reform measures in the legislation "won't relieve people's worries about the future," Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the Democratic Party for the People, said, questioning whether the LDP is seriously thinking about ways to help the ice age generation.
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