A government panel has submitted a report to Prime Minister Taro Aso calling for a sustainable society in which people enjoy the fruit of their social security benefits and feel secure about their lives. The report stresses the importance of the reliable government policy needed to build such a society by 2035. Thus adequate support must be provided in the fields of (1) employment, (2) child rearing, (3) education, (4) medical services and (5) pensions/nursing care.

It is noteworthy that the panel clearly stated that the current social security system is slanted toward helping the elderly and that it called for improving social benefits for the working population.

The panel listed 10 emergency measures that should be taken over the next three years, including a negative income tax for low-income and child-rearing households; a reduction in financial burdens for higher education; and wider social insurance coverage and improvements in working conditions for irregular workers, who account for one-third of the nation's workers. The proposal aimed at helping to stabilize the lives of irregular workers and low-income people is reasonable.

The panel should be praised for presenting tentative calculations of the consumption tax increases that may be required to cope with increasing costs of social security, although wider public discussion is necessary on how to secure financial sources. It says the consumption tax should be 3.3 to 3.5 percentage points higher in 2015 and about 6 percentage points higher in 2025 than the current 5 percent.

It called for establishing a round-table council, made up of ruling and opposition lawmakers, to discuss social security benefits and necessary financial burdens. Both the ruling and opposition parties should deal squarely with the matter in their campaign promises for the coming Lower House election.

The government on its part needs to ax wasteful uses of tax money. It also should realize that its policy of cutting the natural growth in social security costs by ¥220 billion every year through fiscal 2011 is damaging social security services.