Japan Govt OKs Public Pension Reform Legislation

Jiji Press

12:12 JST, May 16, 2025

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Japanese government on Friday adopted public pension system reform legislation for deliberations at parliament.

The legislation calls for easing the requirements for part-time workers at smaller companies to join the “kosei nenkin” public pension program for corporate and government employees.

Under the legislation, the government will ease the requirements by scrapping thresholds in terms of the number of workers at companies and annual income of workers involved.

Those changes will make employees who work more than 20 hours a week necessary to join the kosei nenkin program that will allow them to receive more benefits after retirement.

As a result, the burden on smaller companies, which pay half of kosei nenkin insurance premiums, will increase.

The legislation also seeks to allow more elderly people to receive their full pension benefits while working.

In addition, the legislation includes raising the upper limit on kosei nenkin pension premiums that high-income earners pay and eliminating the gender gap in the survivor’s pension program.

The government did not include in the legislation a proposal for using public funds and reserve funds of the kosei nenkin program to raise benefits under the basic pension program by about 30% because of opposition from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.