Most People Distrust Pension System

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Most People Distrust Pension System

By Yomiuri Shimbun, The Daily Yomiuri

January 29, 2004

A record 64 percent of people who responded to a recent Yomiuri Shimbun survey said they had no faith in the national pension system, reflecting growing public distrust in the scheme.

It was the highest figure recorded in five such surveys conducted since 1997.

The poll, conducted Saturday and Sunday, also indicated 95 percent of respondents were dissatisfied or anxious in some way about the pension system, partly because they were not sure if they would receive a pension in the future, and if they did, how much it would be.

These high figures are believed to reflect the negative affect on public assessment of the system resulting from the government's postponement of comprehensive review of the pension system, when solving inequalities in pension premiums and payments between generations and securing pension revenue source are pressing issues.

The latest survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 3,000 randomly selected voters at 250 locations nationwide. Among them, 1,889 people, or 63 percent, responded to the survey.

Public distrust of the pension system increased by seven percentage points from the previous survey in August. More than 60 percent of respondents said they had little or no faith in the scheme.

The lack of confidence in the system was higher among younger respondents, with 81 percent of respondents in their 20s saying they did not trust the scheme.

A record 78 percent of respondents in their 30s and an all-time high 71 percent of respondents in their 40s said they did not believe in the system.
Asked to give reasons for their anxiety, 50 percent said they were not sure how much their pension payments would be in the future, while another 50 percent said their pensions were or would be small.

Conversely, 41 percent responded that their pension premiums were or would be high. Thirty-eight percent of respondents said the pension scheme might collapse.

Regarding the government's ongoing review aimed at raising employee pension scheme premiums to about 18 percent of income from 13.58 percent, while cutting pension benefit levels to about 50 percent of workers' income from about 60 percent, 76 percent of respondents said they opposed the plan.