On 11 March 2011, a devastating earthquake with a Magnitude of 9.0 struck off the north‑eastern pacific shore of Japan. The earthquake, subsequent tsunami and numerous aftershocks caused tremendous damage across a wide area centred on the Tohoku district. Serious accidents occurred at Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in the need to evacuate people on an even wider scale.

As of 13 May 2011, it was known that 15,000 people had been killed, another 10,000 were still missing, 89,000 buildings were demolished, 292,000 buildings were partially destroyed, and the number of those evacuated had reached 120,000. This resulted in the worst natural disaster for the country since the Second World War.

After the earthquake, the government took a range of immediate countermeasures, placing top priority on the safety of the people affected by the disaster. These measures included the rescue and recovery of persons killed, injured or displaced, sending relief materials, and restoring the basic infrastructure (electricity, water, transport etc).

Response of the social security system to the disaster

In addition to this essential emergency assistance, action had to be taken to ensure the social security system continued to function properly to provide financial and other support to people affected by the disaster. More than 200 actions were taken by the various social security institutions in the month immediately following the earthquake. Their response to the national disaster included:

- detaching doctors, pharmacists, healthcare professionals, mental care teams and child care staff to the disaster area;

- providing medical supplies and arranging for affected people who had lost their health insurance cards to receive medical services;

- providing assistance to hospitals and patients in the affected area;

- improving the living environment in the evacuation centres;

- making a special payment of unemployment insurance benefit to affected people who had lost their job due to the disaster and strengthening job seeking assistance for them;

- reviewing and strengthening occupational safety measures in the disaster area to prevent further occupational accidents;

- postponing social insurance contribution payments; and

- establishing one stop offices to provide welfare services, "life consultations" that give advice to people to help them return to a normal life, job seeking assistance and pension services in the affected area.

These additional measures had to be taken a time when the social security offices and personnel had also been impacted by the disaster.

Main measures taken by the Japan Pension Service to restore services in the area

The Japan Pension Service (JPS), which is responsible for public pension operations, established the JPS Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters immediately after the earthquake to collect and coordinate information on the disaster situation and the safety and whereabouts of its staff in local offices in the area, as well as to determine actions required to restore pension services post-disaster.

Although 30 out of the 312 JPS local offices (i.e. nearly 10 per cent) were affected by the disaster the offices in the area reopened by 29 March 2011, albeit with reduced services.

Due to the number of people killed or otherwise affected, the need for pension consultations has substantially increased, and it is expected that the number of applications for survivor pensions will rise steeply from now on. Many JPS personnel in other parts of the country volunteered to transfer temporarily to the Tohoku District to help re-establish public pension services to affected customers and to cope with the expected increase in claims as well as to provide consultation services at additional temporary consultation offices established in the affected area.

On 28 February 2011, just before the earthquake, the JPS had launched the "Nenkin Net" service, which enabled customers to check their pension records on their own account through the website. Due to the difficulty in the postal service in the area, delivery of the "Nenkin Teiki Bin" (Pension Coverage Regular Notice), which provides information to customers on contribution payments, benefit estimates and periods of pension coverage was temporally suspended. The JPS encouraged customers living in the affected area to check their pension records through the "Nenkin Net" during the period of suspension.

Financial support to aid post-disaster reconstruction

On 2 May 2011, the "Law on special financial supports and grants to address the Great East Japan Earthquake" was passed. This law provides fiscal assistance to the affected local governments to promote speedy post-disaster reconstruction, reduces the burden of social insurance contributions, as well as provides financial support for small and medium-sized companies.

With regard to social security, the financial support provided by the new law includes:

- the exemption from the payment of contributions - such as for pension insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance and child allowance - for affected companies that meet certain conditions;

- the exemption or reduction in individual payments (user fees) for part of the cost of staying in a hospital or a care facility;

- a special extension of the benefit period for unemployment insurance;

- a special procedural rule to allow survivors of family bread winners reported missing due to the disaster on 11 March, to apply for the survivor pension after three months instead of the usual one-year-waiting-period.

Implications of the disaster for the future of the social security system

The government had been discussing social security reform since December 2010 in the context of securing a more stable and sustainable system. The impact of the disaster highlighted the need for and the importance of social security and social solidarity and caused the government to rethink the direction that the social security reform should take.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare set out the vision, taking into account the impact and lessons learnt from the disaster, for social security reform in the "Intensive Discussion Committee for Social Security Reform", stating that:

- The social infrastructure, including medical and social welfare facilities, must be restored urgently in the affected area to ensure that adequate assistance, such as healthcare and welfare services, can be provided to all affected people. Employment measures will be key in helping those affected to recover and return to a normal life.

- Achieving simultaneously social security reform and fiscal soundness will be a major challenge given that the social and economic damage caused by the disaster will have an impact on the stability and sustainability of the system. With a view to strengthening social security, it will be essential for the Ministry to clarify the benefit priorities and allocate the budget to a particular benefit as appropriate to its level of priority.

- Population ageing is happening rapidly in Japan and many vulnerable people, such as the elderly and persons with disabilities were affected by the disaster. Post-disaster reconstruction should not only address the immediate need to restore fully social protection services but should also create an innovative model for a safer and more friendly society for these people.

Source: Website of the Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet, http://www.kantei.go.jp/saigai/report.html; Website of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, http://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/houdou/2r98520000014ih5.html; Website of the Japan Pension Service, http://www.nenkin.go.jp/index.html.

Reference: The "Law on special financial supports and grants to address the Great East Japan Earthquake".

Legislation date: 02.05.2011

Implementation date: 02.05.2011