TOKYO, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Minister of Finance Taro Aso survived on Friday both a no-confidence motion submitted by opposition parties in the lower house of parliament and a censure motion in the upper house, for his refusal to receive a crucial report on pension needs of retirees.
Aso, last week refused to receive a report that questioned the country's pension system's capability to meet the needs of retired people.
He said the panel convened to compile the report had arrived at conclusions that ran contrary to the government's stance that the state pension system is capable of meeting "to some extent" people's household financial requirements in retirement.
As such, he refused to receive the report by a Financial Services Agency panel, which estimated that an average retired couple would face a shortfall of 20 million yen (186,000 U.S. dollars ) if they live to be 95 years old, from a public pension.
Aso had slammed the report as creating "extreme worries and misunderstanding" among the public.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, meanwhile, described the report as "misleading" owing to the hefty figure it presented coming with what the prime minister referred to as a lack of context.
With upper house elections looming this summer, Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is keen to allay public concerns about the highly contentious pension system, which has previously been a thorn in the LDP's side when its mishandling of pension records partly led to the LDP losing in the 2007 upper house election race.
Abe's administration, amid ballooning social welfare costs as Japan's society continues to rapidly age, has been aiming to create a society in which people can comfortably live to 100 years old without having to suffer from financial woes.
However, with rising social security costs amounting to a third of the state budget, opposition parties including the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Democratic Party for the People and the Japanese Communist Party, believe that Aso has been negligent in not receiving the key report highlighting the huge pension shortfalls.
Nevertheless, the resolutions against Aso were voted down at parliament Friday, despite opposition parties arguing Aso had made an "unprecedented" and "outrageous" move to reject a report based on it not backing the government's position.
The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito controls both chambers of Japan's bicameral parliament.
