Old age pensions in Japan and Taiwan 

We were taking a walk in the night market in Ximending, the trendiest commercial area in Taipei, in the pouring rain. Suddenly, an old man, manning a food stall, collapsed before me. Several people rushed to help him out. A few minutes later, we came back to the same spot. He was still there, now sitting on a stool. 

Many old people, really old people, work in Japan and Taiwan. One would naturally wonder, what are the pension systems like in Japan and Taiwan? 

To give a benchmark, a Canadian, if you don’t have any income, would receive about 1800 dollars a month from the government, in the form of OAS and GIS, when you reach 65. There is no need to pay into any pension plan to receive that benefit. If a person in Japan and Taiwan doesn’t pay into any pension plan, how much pension they would receive?The answer is zero. 

It is true that many people receive very generous pensions in Japan and Taiwan. But a substantial portion of population in Japan and Taiwan, the richest countries in Asia, don’t have much pension payments for their old age. That is why so many old people, really old people, are still working, working in not so pleasant areas, such as an old man manning a food stall in the pouring rain.