There are 127 inhabitants in Japan, and 35 million of them are retired. In 30 years it is expected that 50% of the Japanese will be retired. Immigration and natality rate are really low in Japan. Everyone between 20 and 59 years old has to pay to the pension system by law. But the big problem is that most of the young people don’t trust the system anymore and they just decided not to pay and just “save” money by their own.
I found this ad in Okinawa, it states that the pension system is the basis to “connection generations”.
The pension system and social security in general in Japan is REALLY rotten, politicians, newspapers, professors are thinking and thinking on how to solve it. Some of the most common proposals are:
- Reduce the number of years from where you would receive the minimum pension from 25 years to 15 years. In countries like Germany with 10 years is enough.
- Increase consumption taxes, here in Japan are ridiculously low (5%).
- Increase immigration and natality. To solve this there are many proposals and stuff already going on but I can’t see any REAL change.
Which solutions would you propose for a country where the population doesn’t increase? This is something that in Japan is ALREADY happening and is going to start happening in other rich countries in the next decades.