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On June 25, 2020, the Prime Minister held the ninth planning meeting on a social security system oriented to all generations at the Prime Minister’s Office.

At the meeting, the participants held discussions on the draft second interim report of the planning meeting on a social security system oriented to all generations.

Following the discussions, the Prime Minister said,

“Since the launch of this planning meeting in September last year, we have proceeded with reviews towards a social security system oriented to all generations.

Amidst the diversification of lifestyles, we have reviewed and implemented a series of reforms covering the entire spectrum of social security, including work style, so as to sustain the peace of mind not only of the elderly but also children, the childrearing generation and the current working generation.

Based on the interim report of this planning meeting at the end of last year, in the recent Diet session, firstly, a bill requesting businesses to make efforts to secure employment opportunities up until the age of 70 was enacted. In addition, major corporations are now obligated to disclose their ratio of experienced hires among permanent employees.

Secondly, a bill was also enacted that incrementally expands the scope of the enrollment in the welfare pension to include companies whose number of short-term employees exceeds 50 and increases the options on the period of when to start receiving pensions to include those from the age of 75.

And thirdly, we have also greatly increased the subsidies to strengthen the efforts of disease prevention and preventive nursing care and streamlined them significantly. Thus, we are making steady progress towards achieving a social security system oriented to all generations.

With the second interim report we discussed today, we first decided on the establishment of rules to protect freelancers so as to expand freelancing in an appropriate manner. We were reluctant to apply the Anti-Monopoly Act in relation to working styles until recently. As that has changed, the government will develop comprehensive guidelines that clarify the application of that Act and the Subcontracting Act and apply a series of labor laws and regulations in cases that can be regarded as relating to employment. At the same time, we will also consider legislative measures, including the revision of the Subcontracting Act.

Secondly, regarding efforts to deal with the declining birthrate, we intend to swiftly begin taking what actions we can, based on the Outline of Measures to Cope with Society with Declining Birthrate that was approved by a Cabinet decision in May.

We intend to compile the final report of this planning meeting at the end of this year. With regard to healthcare, we will proceed with further considerations in line with the direction and proceedings shown in the interim report issued at the end of last year, and incorporate these into the final report.

I would like to express my gratitude to all the members of this meeting for their discussions thus far, and ask for your continued support.”