Authorities have yet to determine if there is any relation between the fatal stabbings of a former welfare vice minister and his wife and the attack that left another ex-welfare vice minister's wife seriously wounded, but such speculation has inevitably arisen as both bureaucrats specialized in the pension system, whose mishandling has been heavily criticized in recent years.
However, a noted scholar versed in the pension system said they appear to have fallen victim to someone who does not know about the positive changes the two men made to the system 20 years ago.
Kenji Yoshihara, 76, who was vice minister between 1988 and 1990, and Takehiko Yamaguchi, 66, who held the same position between 1996 and 1999, were the brains behind the introduction of the flat-rate universal basic pension benefit, which is the basis of today's national pension system.