Japan's Public Pension System: What's Wrong with it and how to Fix it?

In this paper, I breifly discuss the current structure of Japan's public pension system, the history of that system, and some of the problems with the current system and then make a number of recommendations for reforming the system. I argue that Japan's current public pension system hasan adverse impact on the inter- and intragenerational allocation of resources and that it discourages private saving as well as the labor supply of the aged and of women but that these distortions can be corrected by reforming the system in the appropriate ways.