Abe and his new Cabinet face significant obstacles toward reforming nation's social security systems
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who reshuffled his Cabinet on Wednesday, said he will boost efforts to reform the nation's social security systems — a top domestic priority for him as he enters the last two years of his final three-year term as president of ...
Japan budget requests for fiscal 2020 on way to record-high ¥105 trillion
General-account budget requests from government agencies and ministries for fiscal 2020 are expected to set a new record near ¥105 trillion, it has been learned. The all-time high is ¥102.7 trillion for fiscal 2019, which began in April. The anticipated rise reflects growing debt-serving costs and ...
Japan eyes overhaul of pensions after payouts predicted to be worth 20% less within 30 years
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday that the government will consider overhauling the public pension system to make sure it is sustainable in the long term, a day after the government projections showed that pension payouts would fall by nearly a fifth in ...
Pension reform must accompany consumption tax hike
To end people's fears that the public pension won't support them in retirement, the government must place comprehensive social security reform at the top of the political agenda.
Japan's social security benefits topped ¥120 trillion to hit record high in 2017
Social security benefits paid out in fiscal 2017 reached a record high and exceeded ¥120 trillion for the first time, a welfare ministry-affiliated think tank said Friday. The figure for the year to March 2018 stood at ¥120.24 trillion, up 1.6 percent from the previous ...
The real policy challenges facing Japan
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe must place priority on resolving several major policy challenges confronting Japan before he tries to revise the Constitution.
31% to vote for LDP-Komeito coalition, 20% for opposition but 39% undecided, Japan poll shows
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party has the highest support rate ahead of the Upper House election in July, far eclipsing that of the nearest opposition party, a Kyodo News survey showed Thursday. In a two-day telephone poll conducted from Wednesday, 28.8 percent said ...
Report on Japan pension shortfall spurs anxiety — and a closer look at the system
The Financial Services Agency earlier this month released a report on the future financial security of senior citizens that suggested people would have to save more to make up for expected shortfalls in the public pension system, sparking public anxiety and major controversy over ...
Japan's print media ponder wealth, poverty and pensions
One of my recollections from the bubble economy of the 1980s was a passage in a 1987 book titled "Hokokuron" ("The Theory of National Wealth"). Its author, the late economist Taiichi Sakaiya, stood out as one of the bubble era's most fervent cheerleaders. An American ...
Finance Minister Taro Aso survives no-confidence motions over rejection of Japan pension report
Opposition party-submitted resolutions rebuking Finance Minister Taro Aso for his refusal to receive a report questioning the ability of the country's pension system to meet retirees' needs were voted down in the Diet on Friday. The House of Representatives rejected a no-confidence motion against Aso, ...
Abe says snap election 'nowhere on my mind,' but few likely to take his words at face value
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is seeking to quell speculation he may dissolve the Lower House to coincide with July’s pre-scheduled Upper House poll in a so-called “double election.”
Contrasting visions of Denmark's welfare state turn issue into hot election topic
The Nordic welfare model, long the envy of many across the world seeking an egalitarian utopia, is creaking. Aging populations have led to politicians across the region chipping away at the generous cradle-to-grave welfare state for years. In Denmark, next week's election could prove a ...
