If you all haven't noticed I just added a comments option to my posts...only in the last 4 days or so...feel free to comment on my ranting and raving. I need to be cut down to size once in a while.

Yasuo Fukuda resigned yesterday. I bet not many of you know who Yasuo Fukuda is, so therefore you have no idea of the magnitude of what is going on here in Japan regarding the government. Yasuo Fukuda is the Chief Cabinet Secretary. In Japan that is almost the equivelant of the Vice President in America. That is a huge deal. Imagine Dick Cheney resigning.

Why did this guy resign you ask? Because he did not pay his national pension fund premiums. This is a guy who championed the national pension fund system here and actively sought out and persecuted those who would not pay it. He did not pay them for 5 years and 8 months according to the Mainichi Shinbun article I linked to this post. Now what the hell was this guy thinking? Did he really think that he could get away with this? Especially being the one overhauling the whole system?? What a moron!

Now in all fairness, the guy did not know back then what he would end up doing in the govt or how far up the ladder he would climb. Most people in Japan can get away with not paying the premiums for a short amount of time if they are in a bind as it is not one of the most efficient systems. Your's truly did not pay for the first year he was here....I, of course did not have to according to the law, I paid social security tax instead. I know people who have never paid this national pension premium and they never plan to. I think if you never pay it you never are caught. It's when you pay it and then decide you do not feel lik epaying it that you get caught. THey need to fix that...everyone should get caught.

As much as I hate paying for a pension I will never use, I pay it because living in Japan has provided me with a lifestyle I would not otherwise have in America. Since I am now paying for the Japanese pension I do not have to pay social security...another pension plan I will never use because it will be bankrupt by the time I am old enough to use it.

There are also 5 other govt official in the LDP that did not pay their national pension fund premiums. It is interesting that this all comes out right as the pension fund reform bills are going through the various branches of govt to be voted on and made into law...ponderous nonetheless...wil brin gmore updates on this as they come.