Shintaro Ishihara

Ishihara, 71, said at a regular news conference that he discovered May 13 that he had missed the payments.

He said he had left such matters up to his wife and a certified tax accountant. And even though the ward office had posted him a notice that the payments were in arrears, they did not notice it, he claimed.

Meanwhile, the list of politicians who have not paid pension premiums, which was bolstered by the admission of New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki on May 12, found a star addition May 14 with the revelation that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi did not make payments for almost seven years.

Koizumi dismissed calls for his resignation, saying he hadn't paid because he was not enrolled in the system.

"It is not a matter of non-payment. I have paid all my dues during periods when I was a member," he said.

The Japan Times Weekly: May 22, 2004
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