May 03, 2004
Pension Scandal (again)
Anyone living in Japan will have heard about this, but just to provide a summary:
-37% of non-company-employees in Japan do not pay into the 'compulsory' national pension scheme
-faced with less revenue, and more pensioners to pay benefits to, the Japanese government spends LOTS of money on a campaign trying to force the 'non-payers' into paying
-the government chooses to use actress Esumi Makiko as the figurehead for this campaign
-News leaks that Esumi Makiko has not paid her own pension contributions
-Esumi apologises in public, and pays all her back payments
-News then leaks that first 3, now 7, major Japanese politicians have not been paying their premiums. One of the non-payers is Kan Naoto, the leader of the opposition party, another is cabinet member and Finance Minister Tanigaki, who was not paying his premiums even when in charge of the ministry responsible for the overseeing of the pension scheme.
Apparently, the percentage of non-paying politicians in the Cabinet, at 38%, is marginally higher than the rate of non-payers in the general population. Oh dear...
Click here for Japan Times story
I hope your child undergoes the operation successfully and with minimum fuss and worry, I enjoyed reading your website, and wish you and your family well.
Posted by: Kharnifex at May 3, 2004 09:50 PMYesterday, there was a line up of dozens non-paying politicians on the news, quite remarkable, like Minister of Education not paying for 19 years, or the goverment's pension expert not paying for 5 and half...
I have read before that Japanese politicians or executives sometimes do stupid things for relatively little return risking their career or reputation, like mixing illegal chemicals into food to gain 1 million yen. Maybe this is also such a case.
Posted by: Dirk at May 12, 2004 12:45 PM