This year has been full of difficult things, but we can let it all go and hope that next year will be a better one. Here we are at the end of 2024. However, there are people for whom it has already been determined that they cannot even have hope in 2025. A 75-year-old man working part-time as a traffic controller…regrets from his active days For some reason, road construction increases at the end of the year. Koichi Sasaki (pseudonym, 75 years old) works part-time there directing traffic. –The cold really is getting to me. No matter how warmly I dress, by the time I finish work I lose feeling in my fingertips. Traffic control part-time jobs aren’t always available, so now is the time to make some money, says Sasaki. Daily wage is just under 12,000 yen. This translates to an hourly wage of 1,480 yen. During this period, the monthly salary will be less than 240,000 yen. The take-home pay would be around 180,000 yen. If you add that to your pension, it’ll be a pretty big sum, right? — Your pension isn’t even worth 50,000 yen a month. I can’t survive without working. Since graduating from high school, Sasaki has had several jobs. Looking back, the one thing I only regret is that I did not join the Employees’ Pension Insurance at the company where I had worked for nearly 20 years. “That was a relaxed thing in the past. There was little awareness about pensions, so I never checked it myself. I’m still surprised,” Sasaki said. He thought he had been paying his pension insurance premiums properly, but he says he only found out about this fact when it came time to receive his pension. — Maybe I would have noticed if I had looked at my pay slip properly…Well, the company doesn’t exist anymore, and the government isn’t going to help me. There’s nothing we can do about it. According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare’s “Overview of Employees’ Pension Insurance and National Pension Programs in FY2023,” the average monthly benefit received by an employee pension recipient, including concurrent national pension, is 146,429 yen. Looking at the distribution, the bottom 25% earn between 100,000 and 110,000 yen, and the bottom 10% earn between 80,000 and 90,000 yen per month. Like Mr. Sasaki, only 1.87% of people who receive employees’ pension insurance earn less than 50,000 yen a month. Looking at the overall picture, it can be said that this is a fairly low pension. 450 yen per cup… even refraining from a “little reward” after a part-time job Watching the Red and White Song Battle with his family, eating osechi ryori and ozoni the next day, and drinking alcohol from noon… Sasaki says he hasn’t spent a long time enjoying such an ordinary New Year’s holiday. –I’m alone, and all my siblings are dead. I have nephews and nieces, but I haven’t seen them since my siblings passed away. I have no contact with my relatives at all. I’m 75 years old, a so-called “senior citizen.” Although he is still able to work now, he says that as he enters his 70s he often feels anxious about not knowing what might happen. With this in mind, he started saving the money he had left from his part-time job, but he says the recent inflation has really put him in trouble. –Even though the hourly wage hasn’t increased much, everything we buy is expensive these days. Every time I go shopping the prices go up. I’m so scared I won’t have enough money, I won’t even be able to buy mochi this year. During the cold season, there’s nothing more luxurious than eating my favorite hot soba noodles after work. 420 yen per cup. If you want to splurge even more, order one croquette. Apparently it’s delicious when it’s a little soft and the flavors soak in. He says that recently he has had to sometimes refrain from indulging in such small luxuries. — Nothing good will happen next year? Not likely. Just working to live…that’s the repetition of everyday life. According to the Cabinet Office’s “Public Opinion Survey on National Life (survey period: August 8th to September 15th, 2024),” only 0.7% of people aged 70 or over answered “it has improved” to the question, “How does your family life compare to this time last year?” The percentage of people who answered “decreasing” was 38.3%. In addition, in response to the question, “To what extent do you feel fulfilled in your daily life?” the percentage of people in their 70s who answered “dissatisfied” was 35.1%, a high level compared to other age groups. When asked about future prospects, “How do you think your family life will change from now on?”, only 1.8% of those in their 70s answered “it will get better.” This is the lowest rate of any age group, highlighting the current situation, which does not have a bright outlook. (Omitted) Pensions make up a large proportion of the elderly’s income. As inflation continues, they are struggling more than those of working, salaried age. Although I can find a little hope regarding my salary, I have not heard any talk of an increase in my pension…I cannot imagine a very bright future. (Read the full article here).
>>1 One third of the population in Japan is over 65 years old and their livelihoods are supported by social security.
Two people, including people with disabilities and minors, support the lives of one elderly person, so the burden on the working generation is increasing. Now that the heavy burden of social security is threatening the right to live of the working generation, it is a public welfare for pensioners and welfare recipients to also bear the burden of social security, and everyone, including pensioners and welfare recipients, should work and share the heavy burden of social security. If the declining birthrate continues, it will be only natural that young people today will work until they are 80 years old.
We should be paying more into the national pension. Even if you don’t have any outstanding contributions, 70,000 yen is like being on welfare. Get it first.
Basically, with pensions, you only get back what you put in, so people with smaller pensions pay less and don’t lose out, and people with larger pensions only get back what they put in.
The old man is just punishing himself. You can’t take your money to the next world. If you use it all up and it’s still not enough, you can go on welfare.
It’s the baby boomers’ own fault. It’s because the baby boomers were selfish and didn’t retire, clinging to their companies. Because of that, the ice age generation couldn’t get jobs, and because they abandoned them, the next generation wasn’t born, so the baby boomers are to blame for the sharp decline in young people paying into pensions.
In the 90s, the hiring freeze was on and off, while the baby boomer managers in their 50s were also being laid off, leaving homeless people everywhere. Everyone is focused on the ice age, but even today, there is a huge disparity among 75-year-olds.
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