A package of seven bills designed to save the nation's financially strapped pension system by reducing the pensions of private-sector workers cleared the Diet on Tuesday, with the measures to take effect April 1.
Supported by the Liberal Democratic Party-Liberal Party-New Komeito coalition, the bills passed the Lower House plenary session. Although the bills had been approved by the Lower House during the previous Diet session, they were carried over and needed fresh approval by the chamber in the current session to become law.
The opposition camp had insisted that the bills be scrapped, claiming that the government-proposed reform plans are merely stopgap measures.