March 23, 2004
Esumi Makiko and the Pension Crisis!!!
I wrote about the offensive Esumi Makiko Pension commercial before - the patronizing 'who told you you wouldn't receive a pension, huh? Who was it?' ads that were on TV a while back.
Esumi gets a ticking off for telling porkies!
Well, in a great twist, it appears as though the Japanese govt took 3.8 OKU yen (380million yen) and spent it on this campaign. While berating the youth of Japan for not paying their pension premiums, the 'pension role model' Esumi was also neglecting to pay herself!!!
The Japanese tabloids are having a field day with this.
Japan Times story.
ON a further note regarding pensions, on TV last night there was a show explaining why the pension system is in such a bad state.
Obviously, the birth rate/death rate issue is one large reason. Another is that those in charge of managing the fund (a HUGE amount of money) have systematically made bad investments. The main fund manager was apparently studying for some kind of qualification in investment management by distance learning!!!
Basically, arrogant civil servants appear to have played Russian Roulette with people's pensions. One infamous example is the Green Pia chain of resorts, which were created across Japan to give jobs to government old boys. See below. These resorts are ALL closed now, according to the show on TV last night. Is this what the Americans call 'pork-barrel' politics???
Edano also raised the issue of the large-scale 'Green-pia' leisure facilities that were constructed with money from public pension funds. The expenditure of over 380 billion yen has not yet been recovered, and he commented that "these are not facilities to ensure the welfare of those enrolled in the national pension scheme, but to ensure a safe-landing for bureaucrats parachuting down from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. This kind of investment will only lead to feelings of injustice amongst national pension scheme members."
Kumanachi
Democratic Party of Japan
Kakyou pointed me to another link, which lists in more detail how much money has been wasted on non-pension-related things.
Posted by Gary at March 23, 2004 06:08 PMThe part about the fund manager studying how to invest via distance learning is the scariest thought.... Who in their right mind could have given the reins of billions of dollars to such an inexperienced investor?
Posted by: gen at March 23, 2004 08:13 PMWell, like in any other Japanese organisation, there is the possibility that the guy was transferred from a completely irrelevant department and was trying to catch up.
Posted by: Dirk at March 24, 2004 08:56 AMIn the book Dogs and Demons : Tales form the Dark Side of Modern Japan by Alex Kerr (Author), he discusses how a lot of Japan's largest corporations are not paying into the pension system. I beleive that they have their own pensions set up and are refusing to participate in the government run one. It is a kind of stalemate because the government does not want to take Sony (and others) to court because they will argue that the government pension system is corrupt, broke, broken and not fixable.
The Esumi Makiko story is funny. What a stupid move on her part. Japan's elite are used to getting away with a lot. She probably thought no one would notice. I took quite a while for this to come to light so she almost got away with it.
I am so with you on this. count me as one of the self-employed who actually IS paying his ¥13,000 X 2 per month, expecting to receive nothing in the end, because trying to clean up corruption in Japanese bureaucracy is like trying to stop the tide from coming in. I really resent this, and I imagine every week that some pencil pusher in Tokyo has a buzzer on his desk that goes off as soon as my money goes through every month. He immediately grabs his coat, his nearest colleague and my money, and off they go to no-pan shabu-shabu. Grown-up adults who graduated from Todai go to no-pan shabu-shabu on our money a the pension fund dwindles. It boggles the mind.
Posted by: nils at March 29, 2004 08:47 AM(Delete the words, "every week.")
Posted by: nils at March 29, 2004 08:48 AMIt's funny that pension fund managers tend to be the worst investors. Investing is a risky business, and without inside info, a financial planner is likely to do just as well as an average joe out to make a buck on their bucks. Regardless, if nominal interest rates don't increase, which would require a bit more than a "zero-interest" rate policy, then all aging Japanese annuitants will eventually be left to their own devices (i.e. illegal amounts of charge-free postal savings).
Posted by: Malcolm at January 25, 2005 02:52 AM