Nenkin
Dear Lifelines; I am American, my late husband was Japanese. We lived in Japan throughout our marriage, but for various reasons it became prudent to bring the kids back to the U.S. after he died at age 42.
He was a "sarariman," and since his death I have received payments from the Japanese Social Security agency every two months, for myself and for my children until age 18. I have been reading about all the problems of the pension system in Japan and am worried that these payments could stop. We can live without them but it would require serious adjustments to the budget. -- Kate
Dear Kate; Don't worry about the payments -- they are just fine. As in any country, nenkin, kenko hoken, the social security and health insurance, are always mired in politics, but everybody depends on them so they will not be allowed to fail.