A group of experts appointed in January 2008 by then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to advise the government on the future shape of the nation's social security system has presented its final report. It states that people must directly shoulder a larger financial burden if they want a stable social security system. The government and political parties should follow up with concrete ideas on how to secure the necessary funds, including a time frame, so people can make a fully informed judgment.
The report points out that the government lags in developing measures to increase the birthrate. Medical and nursing-care services have deteriorated and people's trust in the social security system has declined. As the basis for reform of the system, the report has set down the following principles: assurance of equal benefits and equitable shouldering of costs and the creation of a system that is sustainable for a long time — and whose structure is easy to understand.
It states that if the nation improves pensions and medical and nursing services and takes measures to increase the birthrate, while retaining the current pension system based primarily on social insurance, the central and local governments will require additional revenue equivalent to a 3.3 to 3.5 percentage-point increase in the consumption tax rate in fiscal 2015 and a 6 percentage-point increase in fiscal 2025, when the graying of the population is expected to peak.