A furor over Japanese pensions that has forced a top Cabinet member to quit continued yesterday as another minister admitted to skipping more mandatory payments into the state pension fund than he had revealed previously.
The widening scandal threatens to claim the leader of Japan's largest opposition party, who also has failed to make payments, and could weaken Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi ahead of legislative elections in July.
Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said Saturday he felt "very sorry" for the missed payments but that he has no plans to step down. "It was just a short period but it was careless," he told reporters.
On Friday, government spokesman Yasuo Fukuda, one of the most powerful members of Koizumi's Cabinet, quit after admitting that he had failed to make pension payments.
Though officially mandatory, payments into the state pension fund are left for individuals to make unless they are salaried employees of a company, in which case premiums are deducted by the employer. Politicians are considered to be self-employed.
Tanigaki and Fukuda are among seven Cabinet members who have confessed to unpaid pension premiums at a time when the government is trying to encourage ordinary citizens to contribute to the overburdened fund.
Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa has not paid premiums for 21 years.
On Saturday, Tanigaki said he had missed payments for two months in 1972 and two months in 1979 on top of the 17 months he had revealed last month.
Pension reform is expected to be a major issue in Upper House elections in July. A growing number of Japanese, particularly young people, are reluctant to pay into the system because they doubt they will receive benefits when they retire. The govern-ment's long-term plan is to increase contributions and cut payouts.
Analysts said Fukuda's resignation was an attempt to placate growing anger among ordinary citizens by making him a representative sacrifice for the other ministers, most of whom said they would not resign.
But the move has also increased pressure on Naoto Kan, head of the opposition Democratic Party, to resign for not paying pension premiums for a 10-month period, with a growing number of people in his own party calling for him to step down.
Kan was quoted by Kyodo news agency as telling a party meeting on Friday that he could not quit because it might threaten the party's survival.
Other Democratic lawmakers were quoted s saying they could not contest the poll with the disgraced Kan as their leader.
"Nobody in the public feels that the government has done sufficient penance yet," the daily Mainichi Shimbun said.
RSS