Past benefit recipients to be informed of shortfall payments in April-Nov.

February 4, 2019

Tokyo--The Japanese government will inform past recipients of employment insurance and other benefits around April-November of payments of shortfalls resulting from irregularities in a monthly labor survey, labor minister Takumi Nemoto said Monday.

During a meeting of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, Nemoto noted that the labor ministry failed to conduct the labor statistics and a basic wage structure survey under formats approved by the internal affairs ministry. He admitted that this amounted to violations of the statistics law.

On the ministry's release of revised labor survey data for October 2018 on Dec. 21 the same year, the day after the labor ministry reported the survey irregularities to Nemoto, Eiji Habu, an official of the ministry, told the committee meeting that senior officials at the minister's secretariat had not been aware when the revised data would be announced.

Habu said he is sorry for failing to report the problem to the minister early.

Nemoto said that a roadmap on additional payments to current and past benefit recipients will be released later on Monday, adding that it will also be posted on his ministry's website.

The Lower House committee meeting was attended by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and all of his cabinet ministers.

On the government's second supplementary budget plan for fiscal 2018, which ends in March, Abe said, "We'll take every possible measure quickly to ensure that key infrastructure systems in the nation continue to work without disruption in times of natural disasters."

The government will redouble efforts to make the country safe and resistant to disasters, he added. Jiji Press