Ensuring people in their elderly years can live economically stable lives has emerged as an important issue as the nation faces an era in which more people live to be 100 years old. By flexibly combining employment and pension benefits, elderly people can secure a lifestyle that gives them peace of mind. An environment allowing them to do this must quickly be put in place.
The government has settled on the framework for the new policy on the nation's elderly. The framework emphasizes that it is becoming unrealistic to uniformly consider people aged 65 or older as "elderly," and called for the creation of an "ageless society" in which all people can be active according to their wishes and ability.
The framework spells out concrete policies for achieving this goal, including assistance for elderly people to find reemployment or start up a business, and strengthened support for companies that proactively employ senior citizens.
Getting elderly people who have an appetite for work to support society and the economy by working as long as they can will be essential for overcoming challenges posed by Japan's super-aging society and declining population. The ideas behind the framework are appropriate.
More than half of people aged 60 and over who still have jobs want to keep working until they are over 70. Creating an environment that unleashes this strong desire to work is hugely significant from the perspectives of ensuring each individual's economic stability and maintaining their health.
The social security system also needs to be reviewed so it better fits an ageless society.
The framework proposed considering a pension system under which people could delay the age at which they start receiving pensions to over 70.
Staying healthy is key
In principle, people can start receiving a public pension from the age of 65. However, if they wish, they may choose to start from an age between 60 and 70. If they start receiving the pension before 65, the monthly benefit is reduced. If the starting age is delayed, the pension increases. Pushing back the starting age by one year results in monthly pension payments increasing by about 8 percent. If a person starts getting the pension from age 70, their monthly payments will be 42 percent higher than someone who starts when they are 65.
The framework proposes extending the age range during which people can start receiving a pension to above 70, and further increasing the monthly pension amount that these late starters could receive. This aims to instill more flexibility in the age at which people can receive pensions, a step taken with longer careers in mind.
Get people to cover their living expenses as much as possible by earning payment through working, and increase their income after retirement by delaying the date at which they start receiving a pension. The framework can be expected to encourage these options. It can be described as an effective method to cover the decline in pension benefit levels that will accompany an aging society with a chronically low birthrate.
The physical strength and financial well-being of individual elderly people varies greatly, so there is no way the age at which people start getting a pension should be raised across the board. It makes sense to have a structure that respects the wishes of each person.
As things stand now, fewer than 2 percent of elderly people use the system that allows for delaying the start of pension payments. The government should work hard to raise awareness of this system.
One key issue will be expanding job opportunities for elderly people. Companies should review the age at which employees retire, and create personnel and wage systems and skills development programs that anticipate employees will work until their elderly years.
It also will be important for local governments and "silver human resources centers" for elderly people to coordinate closely to increase places where such people can work in regional areas. Nursing care and childcare are among the many fields waiting for elderly people to join the workforce.
Staying healthy is vital for working a long career. Efforts that focus on preventing people from having health problems must be beefed up, including in the medical and nursing care insurance fields.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 18, 2018)
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