The Social Insurance Agency (SIA), criticized for its shoddy handling of pension-related records, has been reinvented as the Japan Pension Service, a corporation with semi-governmental status. It is hoped that workers of the new body will do their best to restore people's trust in the nation's pension system.
Of JPS' 23,000 workers, some 10,800 are full-time. About 1,100 of the latter are from the private sector; the rest are from SIA, which was an extra-ministerial body of the welfare ministry.
Upon SIA's change of status, the government dismissed 525 of the agency's workers. Many of these workers had in the past been subjected to disciplinary action at SIA, while others had no such record. Some of the former group may file lawsuits complaining that they have suffered "double discipline." If the dismissed workers seek new jobs, the government should offer assistance.