Why Did Welfare Pension Insurance Become Workers’ Pension Insurance ?

Abstract

This study examines the process of drafting the public pension plan from the Welfare Pension Insurance Draft in July 1939 to Workers’ Pension Insurance Draft in September 1940. It draws on historical documents, such as the minutes published by the Research Institute of National Policy. The analysis focuses on pension coverage. The following three points became clear from the analysis : ⑴ Despite the fact that the coverage was targeting low-income earners, the Workers’ Pension Insurance became relevant for workers employed in factories and other facilities that employed 10 or more workers at any given time because they selected a target that could reliably collect premiums. ⑵ Worker’s Pension Insurance Draft did not provide for unemployment insurance as it was done in case of the Welfare Pension Insurance Draft because the lack of data made it impossible to make an actuarial calculation. ⑶ In the all-out war, although it was argued that wartime labor policy and economic policy, the Planning Division of the General Affairs Bureau aimed to enact a permanent public pension, true to actuarial standards.