The welfare ministry neglected to act on a huge regional discrepancy in screening policies for disability pensions for three years after becoming aware of the problem in 2011, government documents show.
According to minutes of a November 2011 meeting held in Tokyo by the state-commissioned Japan Pension Fund, made available through an information disclosure request, a welfare ministry official acknowledged that disability pension payments vary greatly between prefectures and lack clear nationwide standards.
It is also known that the percentage of pension claims denied varies significantly among prefectures. Between fiscal 2010 and 2012, 24.4 percent of all disability pension requests were denied in Oita Prefecture, whereas only 4 percent of claims were rejected in Tochigi Prefecture.
Regarding the basic disability pension, which covers most disabled people, prefectural branches of the Japan Pension Fund ask designated doctors to examine the levels of disability among applicants. The branches decide on the amount of payments based on the doctors' assessments.
At the 2011 meeting, the official of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said "there are times when the levels of disability recognized are different (among regions)," the minutes show.
The discrepancy was also found in another category of disability allowance handled directly by the Japan Pension Fund, according to the minutes.
Despite this, the ministry didn't take action to fundamentally fix the regional gaps until February, when it set up a panel of experts to decide on objective criteria for screening disability pension applications.
The ministry official named in the minutes said it was not possible to take action sooner "due to work priorities."