The People's Conference on Social Security, established on Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's initiative, has handed him an interim report on how to reform Japan's social security system. The group, composed of 15 members including business and labor leaders, academicians and social welfare experts, is expected to submit a final report in September.
The report points out that the aging of Japanese society will continue to stress social security services as the percentage of people aged 65 or over keeps rising. It is already more than 20 percent and is projected to reach 30.5 percent in 2025 and 39.6 percent in 2050. To stem Japan's trend toward fewer children, the report calls for large increases in spending to improve social services for families and children. It also calls for steps to strengthen the social safety net for irregularly employed workers, including expanding the scope of pensions for employed workers.
While regarding reform measures taken since 2000 as having contributed to improvements in the overall sustainability of the social security system, the report underscores the importance of "strengthening social security functions" to ensure necessary services and give people a sense of security and safety. This appears to be antithetical to the current government policy of reducing the natural growth in social security spending by ¥220 billion each year from fiscal 2007 to fiscal 2011, for a total of ¥1.1 trillion in cuts.