Draft of a revision of the Law concerning the Stabilization of Employment of Older Persons is formulated, aiming to put in place a system of continued employment up to age 65

Last yearend, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare decided on a policy to introduce by 2013 a system mandating corporations to continue employing workers until the age of 65. This is in response to the phased raising, to 65, of the age at which employee pension payments will begin.

Employee pensions comprise a fixed-amount portion and a proportional remuneration portion. The Ministry is seeking to have corporations adopt a system linked to a graded schedule of raising the payment age for the fixed amount portion. The final year for introducing such system was established in line with the fact that the raising of the payment age of male workers' proportional remuneration portion will begin in 2013.

The finalizing of this plan, however, was postponed to start in the New Year since it met with strong opposition from employers.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare subsequently issued additional proposals, a majority of which were accepted by the employers' side in mid-January. The proposals are that (1) a grace period of three years will be established for large corporations and five years for small- to medium-scale corporations, and (2) an exceptional measure will be adopted to suit the specific circumstances of individual companies such that, as long as Office Regulations that do not require the consent of labor unions are used during the grace period, and as long as a Labor-Management Agreement is concluded after such period, companies will be able to establish their own standards and criteria (such as selecting individuals who will be re-employed).

The Ministry's initial plan to raise the legal mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65 was resolved in the form of "securing employment for the elderly with priority placed on the re-employment system."