- It was voted in favor of the fixed-contribution-pension bill in
the Lower House plenary session today. It is very regrettable that
the governmental bill, which burdens an individual worker with the
management responsibility of a company pension. If this bill will
be approved in the National Diet, workers' uneasy feeling about their
old age will be raised much more, and it will turn a blind eye to
future trouble.
- This bill mitigates the burden and responsibility of a company
under the name of self-responsibility and "choice" of an
individual, and imputes an investment risk to an individual. Working
people are now threatened by employment uneasiness. In such a situation,
if a company pension will become unstable, following the reduction
in the public pension of last year, the sense of insecurity about
old age will be increased much more. Especially, in the situation
with extraordinary low interest and unstable stock price, the risk
of the pension capital, which is a major financial resource for old
age, to fall below par is very high. Therefore, a shift from the current
fixed-benefit pension and retirement allowance to the fixed-contribution
pension lays a big burden and danger on workers.
- RENGO has a clear position that it cannot agree to the bill because an environment where the new system is introduced is not well established. That is,
(1) Abolishing the carrying out system of the Welfare Pension Funds,
enacting a Company Pension Basic Law incorporating a payment certification
system and guaranteeing the transparency of finance and a securities
market are preconditions to the introduction of the new system
(2) The people are inexperienced in investment and so the introduction
of the new system that lays an investment risk on an individual is
premature and even impossible in a current situation with an extraordinary
low interest rate.
It is clear through the deliberation on the bill and statements of
witnesses that these problems have not yet been solved and current
supervisory mechanism of finance and security transactions are inadequate.
- RENGO calls for a well-prepared environment by ensuring the transparency of financial and securities markets and improving information disclosure as preconditions to the introduction of the new system at the occasion of the Upper House's deliberation. It also requests to introduce a payment certification system, which could guarantee the right to receive a company pension. And RENGO strongly requests for measures to establish a reliable, sustainable pension system, for example, through the introduction a tax-financed basic pension syste
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