Archive:

A glass jar full of coins and plant growing through it with some coins and plant leaves.

Introduction Over the last 20 years, pension coverage has shifted from defined benefit plans, where benefits are based on years of service and final salary and generally paid as an annuity, to 401(k) plans, where individual and employer contributions and earnings on those contributions are awarded as a lump sum at retirement. Although the majority…

elderly man inserting credit card to ATM

Introduction In some ways, the Japanese system is not unlike that of other industrialized countries. This is not surprising in so far as Japan, once it opened to the west in the nineteenth century, made a point of learning from the western countries. Moreover, although a full public pension system was not properly established unt…