New Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe says he will "stake his political life" on matching the 50 million unidentified pension premium records, whose decades of mishandling by the Social Insurance Agency led many people to receive smaller payments than they were due.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe drew up a plan prior to the July 29 Upper House election calling for the government to finish matching up all the records by March. But the issue, brought to attention by the Democratic Party of Japan, hit the Liberal Democratic Party like a freight train in the election, knocking it out of the majority in the Upper House.
Amid the backlash, Masuzoe, 58, managed to hold on to his Upper House seat and is now in his second term.