The Cabinet approved a long-postponed bill for reforming the pension system on Friday, two months behind schedule, following lengthy internal discussions and fierce resistance from within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
The trajectory of the bill — slated to enter parliamentary deliberations next week — reveals the hurdles faced by the minority government of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in passing legislation without a majority in the Lower House and a strong political leadership.
The bill includes an expansion of the kōsei nenkin employee pension program to cover part-time workers earning less than ¥1.06 million ($7,300) yearly and those working for companies with fewer than 51 employees. Such workers currently only benefit from a basic pension program providing universal coverage called kiso nenkin.
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