What kind of pensions are provided for the Japanese?
Based on the revision of the Pension Law in 1986, the Japanese pension system consists of the following plans:
National Pension
Welfare Annuity
Mutual Benefit Annuity
National Pension is mandatory for everybody aged 20 or over who is self-employed, housewives, students, or employees of non-member companies of the Welfare Annuity system.
It also applies to unemployed people as well as foreigners.
The Welfare Annuity is a pension for people working for private enterprises.
In a narrow sense, the Mutual Benefit Annuity is designed for national public servants and local public servants.
The working population and people aged 20 or older in Japan must join one of the above pension plans.
In 2002, 70,160,000 people were paying premiums for their pensions after retirement, whereas the number of people receiving pensions payments was 40,910,000.