ABSTRACT
Under the current Japanese pension system, the lifetime pension benefit of an average salaried man born in 1935 is greater than his lifetime pension contributions by $500,000. If he were faced with the contribution and benefit schedules that a person born in 2000 faces, his lifetime benefit would be less than his lifetime contribution by $250,000. This means that the net pension benefit is different between the two cohorts by $750,000 even under the assumption that their lifetime incomes are equal.1
