The government is facing a crisis over its handling of the creaky public pension system, in part because the Social Insurance Agency scrambled the data on 50 million premium payments during a bungled shift to computerization in the 1980s. Since it cannot identify who made the payments, many pensioners are not being paid what they are entitled to.
The fiasco has sent Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's support ratings plunging to new lows ahead of the Upper House election in July. Although the opposition parties have tried to get to the bottom of the debacle by questioning Abe and his government in the Diet, the ruling bloc appeared hell-bent on ramming two hastily arranged bills on "pension reform" through the Lower House Thursday evening in a bid to pre-empt public unrest over the issue.
Below are some questions and answers about the scandal: