July 28, 2003

Civil Disobedience or Selfishness?

I recently got an e-mail from my friend Greg pointing out another dangerous change in Japanese society. 40% of eligible working adults are refusing to pay their pension bills (farmers and the self-employed are sent pension contribution bills, whereas employees of corporations have their contributions witheld from their paycheck). I read an Op-Ed piece in the Asahi Shi.bun, and the proposal that the editor put forward was to reform the Japanese pension to work like the Swedish pension system. This may resolve some issues, but it will not fix the basic problems with the Japanese economy that are causing people to lose faith in government.

I think some young people are intentionally refusing to pay because they disagree with the way the goverment is operating, and they find it a simple way to protest. The majority are just looking for a way to help make ends meet in the short term.

Japan needs deep reform soon.


Posted by cyrus at July 28, 2003 03:22 PM | T r a c k B a c k
Comments

Hi Cyrus!

This has been news lately; the government is coming up with measures to squeeze this cash out of the folks who aren't paying. I don't think it's indicative of much in the way of conscious protest, though; the undercurrent I sense here is much more along the lines of "hell, there's no way we're going to see any of this money 30 years from now, so why bother paying it?"

Truth be told I feel much the same way about the fees that are no doubt supposed to be levied on my freelance payments. ;-)

Nice site . . . now bookmarked and ready for repeat visits.

--Durf

Posted by: Peter Durfee on August 24, 2003 10:15 PM
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