Deputy PM Aso faces censure motion over funds needed for post-retirement lives

TOKYO -- Four opposition groups introduced a censure motion against Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Financial Services Taro Aso on June 20 over a Financial Services Agency (FSA) panel report that an average elderly couple will need some 20 million yen on top of their public pension benefits to fund a 30-year post-retirement life.

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Democratic Party for the People, the Japanese Communist Party and Okinawa Whirlwind, a parliamentary alliance comprising two legislators from the southernmost prefecture, submitted the motion to the House of Councillors.

In the motion, the opposition groups criticize Aso, who also serves as finance minister, for refusing to accept the report.

"He consulted the panel over the matter but refused to accept the report because he does not like it. It is an unprecedentedly outrageous act," the motion states. "The act reflects the government's tendency to cover up problems."

(Mainichi)