The Health and Welfare Ministry, in a white paper released Tuesday, called on rich elderly citizens to cover a larger portion of social insurance costs, saying the nation's medical insurance and pension systems can no longer function without contributions from all members of society.
The 2000 white paper on health and welfare attempts to refute a widely held belief that the elderly are socially and economically weak, filling more than half the report with various statistics showing that they are better off than generally thought.
The paper says that households headed by people aged 65 or older have comparatively large assets and that the elderly tend to possess more savings than younger generations.