Most industrialized countries are struggling with the aging of their societies, and with its very low birth rate, Japan generally leads the pack.
There are two systems that provide health insurance and retirement income in Japan, the Social Insurance System (available to any employee of a medium-sized or larger company, and their families) and the National Insurance System (available to everyone else, including self-employed). Both systems work fairly well, covering 70% of medical costs and providing a basis for Japanese retirees to live.
Oddly, although everyone is ostensibly required to pay into the local version of Social Security, there are no penalties for not doing so, and many Japanese don’t bother with the system at all. This includes some politicians, which caused a scandal that ended several careers a few years ago.
Currently Japan’s Social Security system is in hot water after losing data on up to 50 million citizens who paid into the system over the past twenty years, including that of yours truly — we recently asked for a report on the payments I’d made when I was teaching ESL and were told they didn’t have me in their computer. It turns out that a change in the number used to track these payments caused information on millions to disappear, causing extra retirement headaches for many.
“very low birth rate, Japan generally leads the pack.”
(Peter) with all due respect sir,Italy is Way-in-Front in terms of negative-birthrate,corruption,fashion,football,food,Ferrari,ferragamo and every other F word.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUST73543
so don’t sweat it!! - Japan will survive - on its wits and it’s basic onboard inbuilt ability to ignore the negative naybobbing seers of disaster.
Japan is a cool place - it’s just in Transition.
*rem polemic #1*
Well, buggered that quote up, didn’t I…
The government says they will fix all the data within a year. (But many people guess it would take years to fix the data or some data would be lost forever.) Most data should be reserved somewhere in the form of papers. If those data/papers had been lost, they could be compensated by the working record from former workplace. Even in the worst case, you must insist with a “louder voice” that you have paid for the public Insurance with showing your working resume.
“many Japanese don’t bother with the system at all.” Well, I know many Japanese people who are complaining about the public Insurance System furiously. I am also quite pessimistic about public servants and administration offices. I know they are always neglecting their jobs.
This sounds like an underhanded but excellent way of cutting down on government overspending! I honestly wish it would happen here in the States too.
Yes, it’s looking like this may just bring down the government. I’m pretty mad too, even though I only have 4 years paid into the system.