Japan's 2004 Pension Reforms in Response to Demographic Change: a legal critique

Japan's public retirement system is in crisis. It faces two enormous problems. The first is apparently temporary. The economy that funds the pension program has under-performed in the last decade. The other problem is more difficult to address. Namely, Japanese society is experiencing a massive shift in its age structure with profound social and economic ramifications. 2 Financing the social security system of which the public pension accounts for approximately half has thus become a matter of urgent concern. Meanwhile, this issue and other structural problems have instigated a crisis of confidence in the public pension system, which has further harmful ramifications. Furthermore, the pension system is out of step with the industrial changes that are inseparably linked to demographic transition