JAPAN: 1.44 million pension records corrupted

. TOKYO (Kyodo - The Japan Times), October 4, 2008 More than 1 million records in the state pension system for corporate employees likely contain false information, government sources said Friday. The falsifications could seriously affect the amount of pension both current and future pensioners are entitled to. Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe told a news conference that three types of falsified records have been discovered among the 150 million computerized records in the "kosei nenkin" pension system for corporate employees. The first type, a sharp drop in monthly incomes, which are used as a benchmark to calculate people's pension premiums, was found in 750,000 records. The next type, which involved plan holders giving up their membership in the pension system on the same day or the day after the income figures were lowered, was found in 156,000 records. A further 533,000 records were found with dates changed retroactively by more than six months, Masuzoe said. The health minister said this shows that changes were made to 1.44 million records in total. As a result of the falsification, employees whose records were changed will lose some of their pension benefits. Of the 1.44 million records, the number containing falsified information, excluding overlapping records, could top 1 million, the sources said. Last month, the SIA said that one of its staffers had told companies that were falling behind in paying their pension premiums to falsify their employees' monthly incomes. At that time, the agency said that there were only 69,000 records that were suspected of containing false information. But this was the figure for records that met all three conditions: lowered monthly income, surrendered membership and retroactive changes to a record. Masuzoe said Friday that the agency now suspects falsified records exist that do not meet all three conditions. If the monthly incomes are lowered from the actual rate or the subscription periods are falsely reported, the premium burden is lessened. But the future benefits will become smaller as well. The agency, for its part, can achieve better a record on collecting premium payments from member companies if their burden from the payments is reduced by falsification. (C)The Japan Times