Japan to focus on cutting social security spending over next 3 years

April 13, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese government will focus on cutting social security spending with specific targets over the next three years or so, bracing for an accelerating rise in social security costs in and after fiscal 2022, when baby boomers begin to reach 75 years old, officials said Thursday.

The decision was made at a meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, chaired by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on the day. "We need to fully consider spending levels and other issues," Abe told the meeting.

Measures to reduce social security spending under the initiative are expected to be included in a fiscal consolidation plan that the government is slated to adopt in June.

Annual growth in social security spending is estimated to accelerate from some 650 billion yen in fiscal 2016 to 2018 to 900 billion yen in and after fiscal 2022, according to the Cabinet Office.

During the council's meeting, private-sector members proposed promoting measures to prevent illness and making medical and nursing care services more efficient by utilizing artificial intelligence technology.

A private-sector member urged the government to raise the 8 percent consumption tax to 10 percent in October 2019 as planned, in order to use a tax revenue increase for improving social security services. Jiji Press