When the Democratic Party of Japan was in the opposition, party member Mr. Akira Nagatsuma was known for research into the problem of hard-to- identify pension-premium payment records and his sharp questions on the matter in the Diet. Now as health, labor and welfare minister, he finds himself struggling to solve the problem.

In 2007 it was discovered that there were 50.95 million cases in which a person's pension premium payment history could not be confirmed. The Social Insurance Agency said that as of September, 15.81 million of those cases remained unsolved. Now it appears the problems involve 850 million pension-related records.

The DPJ claimed in its election manifesto that if it gained power it would strive to resolve the problems within two years. But there is a pessimistic view within Mr. Nagatsuma's ministry that even a decade would not be enough time to solve the problems. The government needs to do its utmost to resolve these problems while people eligible to receive pensions are still alive.

The welfare ministry plans to establish a system in fiscal 2010 in which the paper ledgers used before the introduction of the online system will be digitized for collation with computer records. Mr. Nagatsuma said that by the end of fiscal 2011, 70 percent of the records in question will be collated. It is expected the project will be completed in four years.

For fiscal 2010, Mr. Nagatsuma asked for a budget of ¥177.9 billion to address problems with pension-related records. Of that amount, ¥78.9 billion will be spent on collation; in fiscal 2011 the task will require about 50,000 workers. But Mr. Nagatsuma should reconsider whether the method adopted by the ministry is the best way to resolve the problems. He should be flexible enough to switch methods if a more efficient solution is found.

Meanwhile, work by a third-party committee to handle complaints from people who believe their premium payment records have been mishandled is not going smoothly. The government should review the committee's criteria for accepting or rejecting individual requests for pension payment investigations, and increase the committee's manpower to expedite processing of the workload.