New Obstacles: Retirement and Pensions

Abstract

The repatriated orphans encountered yet another obstacle. As they became sixty years old, the official retirement age in Japan then, their income was drastically reduced. Due to their short years of employment in Japan, the orphans only received the average ¥30,000 to ¥50,000 (US$273— US$455) private pensions (kōsei nenkin or the “employee’s pension insurance”) per month. In fact, many of them did not receive any private pension benefits. Similarly, due to the insufficient years of premium payment, the orphans did not receive the public pension (kokumin nenkin), called the “basic pension for the elderly” (rōrei kiso nenkin), which is equivalent to the U.S. Social Security pension. Worse, many orphans ended up losing all the premiums paid since they had settled in Japan. To receive a full benefit of ¥66,008 (US$600) per month payable from age sixty-five, pensioners must have paid monthly premiums for at least twenty-five years from ages between twenty and sixty. The monthly premium as of January 2008 was ¥14,410 (US$131). Consequently, the orphans could not sustain their living after retirement and were obliged to live on welfare.¹