March 28, 2000

Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC-RENGO)

While non-government parties called for further deliberation, the ruling parties steamrollered the bill in the both Houses, resorting to the numerical power. RENGO strongly protests against such an outrage neglecting the voice of the people. We should not accept the management of the Diet only depending on the numerical power without thorough deliberation.

The substance of the revised Pension Law reflects such Diet management of the ruling parties. The revised Law does not provide any measure to improve the insufficient resource of the basic pension and only shifts an additional burden to the people. The consensus of the people is prerequisite to establishing reliable pension system. That is why social security-related bills are always passed after sufficient deliberation resulted in a consensus in other countries. However, the Japanese ruling parties gave up an effort for reaching a consensus at the beginning and simply passed the bill, which worsened the pension system. This leaves an indelible stain on the reputation of the Diet.

RENGO has made counterproposals to the bill and taken any possible action to realize them. These actions include sit-in demonstration in from to the Diet House, visits to the Diet sessions, national-wide street campaigns and signature-collecting campaigns, all of which have succeeded in raising the support of the people. It is regrettable that, in spite of these efforts, the government bill was passed. RENGO should make the best use of this lesson and strengthen its effort not to overlook the repetition of such an outrage.

Our struggle is not over yet. The sense of insecurity about pension among the people needs further actions of RENGO. Thus, RENGO will start preparing for the future reform of pension system in order to establish reliable and safe pension. RENGO will also prepare for a comprehensive report on the total vision of social security covering pension, medical services, long-term nursing and welfare to present a concrete picture of what RENGO thinks the welfare state should look like.