Because the government is gradually raising the age at which retirees can start receiving the kosei nenkin pension — a pension for corporate workers — it is requiring companies by law from April 2013 to re-employ in principle employees who are age 60 or older and want to continue working, until they qualify to receive their pensions.

It is inevitable that the new system will lead to an increase in companies' personnel costs. Both the government and companies need to make serious efforts to ensure that the new system is smoothly implemented.

At present, male corporate workers can start receiving the kosei nenkin pension at age 60. The age will be raised to 61 in April 2013. After that, the age will be raised by one year, every three years, until April 2025 when the pension start age will be 65. For female corporate workers, the same changes are scheduled to take place five years later than male workers.