When Saori Ito went on maternity leave last year and stopped getting a regular paycheck from her cosmetics company, she became worried about her future — and wondered if this kind of anxiety is what awaits her after retirement.
The 34-year-old married mother of a 1-year-old girl had doubts about the government's ability to fund retirement for Japan's growing ranks of elderly in the world's oldest population.
So she set up a private, self-managed pension account.