Some social insurance offices in Ibaraki Prefecture falsified company managers’ average monthly earnings that will be used as the basis for calculating their pensions, and deleted 10 percent of companies’ delinquent accounts from official records, according to sources close to the office.
The sources said some of the offices falsified data to make their pension premium collection rates appear higher than they really were. The sources also said there was a so-called Ibaraki rule, which stated that only monthly salaries of management-level employees would be lowered and the offices had been provided with software that had been programmed to automatically calculate the delinquent accounts to be deleted.
According to pension insurance premium collection records for fiscal 2005, which The Yomiuri Shimbun acquired, of the 1.4 billion yen in past delinquent accounts, 145.02 million yen was erased at the Tsuchiura Social Insurance Office. At the Mito Minami Social Insurance Office, 84.08 million yen, or about 4 percent of its 2 billion yen worth of delinquent accounts, was deleted.
The two offices’ deleted amounts far outstripped the 150,000 yen to 6 million yen deleted at the other three offices in the prefecture the same fiscal year.
According to the sources, the office summoned managers of companies that had failed to pay premiums and first unsettled them by seizing their companies’ deposits and savings before asking them to sign an agreement to “pay the arrears,” which actually amounted to an agreement to take part in the delinquent account deletion scheme.
The sources said pension office staff persuaded many of the managers to lower the salaries listed in the pension records. For example, an official would ask a manager, “Your executive salary is registered as 500,000 yen here but it’s actually 200,000 yen, isn’t it?” adding, “If you agree to correct the salary, your company’s delinquent account total will be reduced by 10 million yen.”
The Ibaraki rule restricted the targets of this “persuasion” to corporate managers and their families, as it was seen as unfair for regular employees to have their future pension payouts reduced.
The software used to calculate which delinquent accounts should be deleted was distributed to pension officials responsible for collecting the premiums via USB memory sticks in fiscal 2002.
Ibaraki Prefecture’s collection rate for employee pension insurance premiums was ranked 46th among the nation’s 47 prefectures from fiscal 2001 to fiscal 2003. But it shot up to the 37th in fiscal 2004 and 24th in fiscal 2005.
Schools for foreigners, technical colleges included in DPJ’s free high school lesson plan
Technical colleges and schools attended by foreigners will be included in the Democratic Party of Japan’s pledge to make high school lessons free of charge, it has emerged.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has decided to make high school courses at technical colleges and vocational schools subject to the move, together with various schools for foreigners. It plans to include the necessary expenses in next fiscal year’s budget allocation request.
“We want to support learning chances for as many people as possible,” Deputy Education Minister Kan Suzuki said when questioned by the Mainichi.
Various schools operating under the School Education Law will be included in the measure, even if their students are of foreign nationality, meaning the DPJ’s move will apply to schools for Korean students and to international schools. However, Suzuki indicated that schools operating without approval — commonly seen among schools such as those for Brazilian children — would not be included.
“It is desirable that support is provided within the framework of the system,” he said, adding, “There is a need for revisions such as lowering the bar for approval.”
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20091014p2a00m0na012000c.html
Haraguchi positive on foreigner voting rights
Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi responded positively Thursday to the proposed granting of voting rights to foreign nationals with permanent residency in gubernatorial, mayoral and local assembly elections.
“Some conclusion should be reached on the matter, and I want to seek a realistic response,” he said in an interview with news organizations.
A number of DPJ lawmakers are hesitant about granting local voting rights to foreigners. Opponents also include financial services minister Shizuka Kamei, head of Kokumin Shinto (People’s New Party), one of the DPJ’s coalition partners.
Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki is also cool on the idea.
In a 1995 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not forbid a law being passed to guarantee local voting rights to foreign residents.
The DPJ, New Komeito and the Japanese Communist Party have submitted such bills to the Diet a total of 12 times since 1998. However, the bills were scrapped due to opposition mainly from the long-ruling LDP, which was recently ousted from power.
Kamei blames Keidanren for rise in suicides
The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) is responsible for the recent increase in the number of family murder-suicides, according to financial and postal affairs minister Shizuka Kamei, an outspoken politician who has stirred controversy since his appointment last month.
Firms have stopped treating people as humans and this has led to an increase in families taking their lives, Kamei said in a speech Monday. He said that when he met with Fujio Mitarai, chairman of the business lobby, in May, “I told him Nippon Keidanren should feel responsible for this.”
2 gangsters held over holding of ex-Nova boss
Two members of the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate were arrested on the spot Monday on suspicion of confining the former president of the failed language school chain Nova Corp. inside a Tokyo hotel, police said.
According to senior police officials, the two men confined Nozomu Sahashi, 58, who has been sentenced to 3-1/2 years’ imprisonment for professional embezzlement, inside a room of a hotel in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, from about 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday.
On the same day at about 3 p.m., investigators rescued Sahashi and arrested the two men. Sahashi, who is currently appealing the ruling, did not suffer any injury.
Brace for a possible spring shock
When spring approaches next year, many foreigners in Japan could be in for a rude awakening: From April 1, all those who apply to extend their visa in Japan will be asked to show proof of enrollment in one or other of Japan’s main national health systems, the shakai hoken (social health insurance and pension) or kokumin kenko hoken (national health insurance).
When that time comes, it won’t help to present details of your own private health plan, or to argue about the inefficiencies of the system for foreigners. Japan has had a mandatory universal health care system in place since 1961, meaning that any resident over 20 must be enrolled, whether employed or unemployed, Japanese or non-Japanese.
If you are working for a company in Japan, chances are that you are (or need to be) enrolled in shakai hoken, in which you pay half of your health insurance premiums and your company pays the rest. There isn’t much ambiguity about shakai hoken: If a company employs more than five people, and an employee is working more than 30 hours a week for a period longer than 2 months, the company is obligated to submit paperwork for an employee’s health insurance and pension to the Social Insurance Agency within five days of hiring. With shakai hoken comes the kosei nenkin, or pension plan; the two are a set, and enrollment is mandatory whether you plan to retire in Japan or not.
Meanwhile, people who are unemployed, self-employed, employed by a small firm or retired should be enrolled in kokumin kenko hoken (national health insurance). People paying into this system have to sign up on their own for kokumin nenkin (the national pension) at their city ward office.
On the positive side, the new guidelines will at least force the issue into the open so that there are fewer people … blindsided by back payments, says Yujiro Hiraga, president of [Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union’s predecessor] the National Union of General Workers, Tokyo Nambu. “I think it will be a good source of pressure for employers to enroll their staff.” But, he adds, “The negative effect is that it might encourage more secrecy among people and companies without it.”
He notes that the number of employers who enroll their staff in insurance is shrinking with the economic downturn, and that things could get worse: A labor ministry survey last year found that over 100,000 companies had not enrolled their staff in shakai hoken as of March 2008.
Yakuza nabbed for confining disgraced ex-president of NOVA in hotel room
Several men including a yakuza member have been arrested for confining the former president of failed English conversation school Nova for several days in a hotel room, police said. The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) arrested several men on Monday, including a member from a gang related to the Yamaguchi-gumi criminal syndicate, on suspicion of confining former Nova President Nozomu Sahashi, 58, in a hotel room in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2009/09/29/20090929p2a00m0na011000c.html
Ozawa positive about granting local voting rights to non-Japanese
Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa says he will try to take the issue of giving foreigners local voting rights to next year’s regular Diet session.
In a meeting with South Korean lawmaker Lee Sang Deuk in Tokyo on Saturday, Ozawa told Lee he favors granting local suffrage to permanent residents of Japan, including South Koreans, participants said.
“I want it to take form somehow during the regular Diet session,” Ozawa was quoted as saying, suggesting he intends to compile the opinions of DPJ members during the session.
Interac and Pregnancy: Getting Fired for Being Pregnant
Last year when I was in the Osaka based General Union, we received an email from an Interac ALT who was rather upset because she had been fired for being pregnant. Martina (name changed) was set to have her contract renewed with her school where she was loved by her students and teachers. Her contract had already been promised to her verbally and her schools and students were looking forward to her return. Then, people in the Yokohama office found out something that they viewed as a major inconvenience to their business, Martina was pregnant and would be giving birth during the middle of the school year.
They told her that in light of her condition, it would be too much trouble for them to find a replacement in the middle of the school term, and had decided to go with someone else who was less…. pregnant.
New law: no dues, no visa
An article from July that concerns every foreigner working in Japan.
Are you enrolled in Shakai Hoken or did Interac tell you you weren’t eligible? Are you going to have to pay up to two years of back pay into the system next year because Interac/Maxceed did not register you into the system when you started working for them?
Let’s hope not.
Solidarity
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090728zg.html
By JENNY UECHI
Enrollment in Japan’s health insurance program tied to visa renewal from 2010
By JENNY UECHI
In your wallet or somewhere at home, do you have a blue or pink card showing that you are enrolled in one of Japan’s national health and pension programs? If not, and if you are thinking of extending your stay here, you may want to think about a recent revision to visa requirements for foreign residents. The changes, which the Justice Ministry says were made in order to “smooth out the administrative process,” may have major consequences for foreign residents and their future in Japan.