Pension Welfare Corporation

A special corporation established in 1961 (Showa 36) under the Pension Welfare Corporation Law for the purpose of establishing facilities to contribute to the welfare of insured persons of the Employees' Pension Insurance, Seamen's Insurance, and National Pension, and for the purpose of providing appropriate and smooth repayment loans for the funds required for these. It was dissolved on April 1, 2001 (Heisei 13) when the new Pension Fund Management Fund was established.

The pension reserve fund that the people saved was deposited in full with the Ministry of Finance's Fund Management Department (currently the Ministry of Finance Fiscal Loan Fund) and was managed as an important source of funds for the national fiscal investment and loan. The source of the reserve fund was insurance premiums paid by labor and management, so one-third of the expected increase in new deposits was allocated as long-term, low-interest return loans to areas that directly contributed to the promotion of welfare and maintenance of health of insured persons and their families, and was lent for the construction of facilities such as housing, nurseries, elderly welfare centers, hospitals, halls, gymnasiums, and national recreation centers. In addition to return loans (loans to the private sector), the Pension Welfare Corporation directly established and operated welfare facilities, and from 1974 began construction of large-scale pension recreation bases (Greenpia, abolished and transferred in 2005) to contribute to healthy and effective leisure use of pensioners, insured persons, and their families, and had opened 13 locations by 1988. In addition, from 1994, the organization also conducted a pension education fund mediation business, but this was abolished in line with the fundamental reform of the Fiscal Investment and Loan Program in April 2001, and the business was taken over by the Pension Fund Management Fund, which was then abolished in 2004 and taken over by the Government Pension Investment Fund.

[Kazuhiko Yokoyama]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

厚生年金保険、船員保険、国民年金の被保険者などの福祉に資するための施設の設置、それらに必要な資金の還元融資を適切かつ円滑に行うことを目的として1961年（昭和36）に年金福祉事業団法に基づいて設立された特殊法人。2001年（平成13）4月1日に新たに年金資金運用基金が設立されたのに伴い解散。

　国民が積み立てた年金積立金は、大蔵省資金運用部（現、財務省財政融資資金）に全額預託され、国の財政投融資の重要な原資として運用されていた。積立金の源泉は、労使（資）負担の保険料であるので、新規預託増加見込額の3分の1相当額を長期かつ低利の還元融資として、直接、被保険者、その家族などの福祉の増進、健康の保持に寄与する分野に配分することとされ、住宅、保育所、老人福祉センター、病院、会館、体育館、国民保養センターなどの施設の整備のために融資されていた。年金福祉事業団は、還元融資（民間への融資）のほか福祉施設を直接設置・運営し、1974年から、年金受給者、被保険者、その家族の健全かつ有効な余暇利用に資するための施設である大規模年金保養基地（グリーンピア、2005年廃止・譲渡）の建設を進め、1988年までに13か所をオープンした。また1994年（平成6）からは年金教育資金斡旋(あっせん)事業を行っていたが、2001年4月の財政投融資制度の抜本的改革にあわせて廃止され、業務は年金資金運用基金が引き継いだ。さらに年金資金運用基金は2004年に廃止され、年金積立金管理運用独立行政法人に引き継がれた。

［横山和彦］

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