Many Japanese Teenagers Doubt Pensions Will Support Them in Old Age

A Nippon Foundation survey asked 1,000 people aged 17 to 19 how they felt when they thought about their financial situation on reaching old age. It revealed that 60% of young men and 70% of young women were “concerned.”

When those who said they were “very concerned” or “slightly concerned” were asked the reason, the most common response, with 45.7%, was due to the “difficulty of maintaining the public pension system”. In particular, 50% of young women had doubts that the system could be maintained.

The source of funds that the largest percentage of respondents thought they would most want to rely on in old age was their “own savings” at 34.2%, followed by a “public pension” with 28.5%. At 37.9%, more women said they would rely on their “own savings,” compared to 30.7% of men.

The survey also looked at what respondents thought about how the pension contributions they were paying would balance against the amount of pension they would eventually receive, showing that approximately 60% of men and 70% of women believed their pension “will be less” than their contribution.

When asked to what extent they thought they could live on a pension in the future, assuming they paid in all their public pension contributions, only 3.8% said they “could mainly live on just a pension.” Meanwhile, at 29.2%, nearly one third said they “could hardly live on just a pension.” When combined with those who answered it would either cover “around 30%” or “around 10%,” this meant more than 60% of respondents did not expect to be able to finance even half of their living cost on a pension.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)