ECO: pension

I. Issue and reason

We are very concerned about this issue because the pension will surely have something to do with us in the future. In addition, this problem is currently being focused on in the Diet (Koizumi-vs-Okada).

II. Causes

1) The main cause of this issue is the birth rate is decreasing, but older people are living longer than ever before. The reason for the declining birth rate is that women can achieve a higher position in our society, so they continue working into their thirties. This causes people to get married later in life.

2) An additional cause of this problem is that there are many people who don’t pay a pension now.

III. Solutions

1) The best solution to this problem is to sweep away distrust which the young have. The young tend to think that they may not be able to get as much pension as they pay insurance premiums in the future.

2) In order to support this solution, the government should make a solid pension foundation and assure the young the same amount of pensions they pay.