Usually retired company employees are entitled to basic pension benefits as well as an additional pension benefit, the latter a corporate pension benefit that has accrued from the management of part of the premiums they have contributed. The management of the premiums is done by employees pension funds organizations, called kosei nenkin kikin.
But the Pension Fund Association (Kigyo Nenkin Rengokai) reports that some 1.21 million people are not receiving the additional benefit even though they are entitled to it. In most cases they either have forgotten to apply for it or their current addresses are unknown. The association is made up of employee pension fund organizations. Its main task is to pay the additional benefit to people whose employee pension fund organizations have been disbanded due to company problems and people who have withdrawn from the kosei nenkin pension system for company employees without paying premiums for at least 10 years.
According to a report submitted in September by the association to welfare minister Ritsuo Hosokawa, some 6.16 million people, as of the end of July, were theoretically entitled to the benefit if they completed and returned application forms. But some 450,000 people did not respond even though application forms were mailed to them and application forms did not reach some 760,000 people because their addresses had changed. Unclaimed benefits total ¥144 billion.