Nagging doubts about how much money retirees need have erupted into Japanese public debate, potentially hurting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in national elections for parliament’s upper house next month.
A report published June 3 on the Financial Services Agency’s website pointed to serious shortfalls in the social security system for the world’s most-aged country, saying a couple in their sixties retiring on a pension would need a nest egg of up to 20 million yen ($184,000) to help cover living expenses. Opposition parties pounced, trying to leverage renewed worries over the creaking pension system to dent Abe’s majority in the election.
