As Japan faces a declining birth rate and aging population, there is an urgent need to improve the sustainability of the social security system.

Pension and medical costs are expected to increase further in the future due to the aging of society. The nation must discuss how taxes, insurance premiums and other sources of revenue will be used to cover this financial burden. Yet, debate ahead of the Oct. 27 House of Representatives election has been slow.

The task at hand for Japan is to prepare for the 2040s, when the number of those aged 65 and above will peak. The percentage of elderly people among the country's population will increase from the current 29% to over 35%. Baby boomers' children who faced an "employment ice age," in which youths struggled to secure stable employment, will enter their elderly years. Many of them have been forced into precarious employment situations, which will lead to low pensions in the future.

The Japanese government is advancing a review of the public pension system, and raising the benefit levels is one of the points under discussion. Both the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito have incorporated expansion of the basic pension system into their lower house election pledges. However, they have not indicated how they will finance this move, whose cost is expected to reach several trillion yen (tens of billions of dollars).

Regarding health care, the focal point is how the financial burden should be borne. Since the premiums of the working-age population are used to pay for medical care for the elderly, the current system may result in an excessive burden on the working generation in the future if left as is. One view is that the level of co-payments shouldered by elderly people should be determined based on their ability to pay, not on their age. However, careful debate is needed on such issues including where to draw the line in determining their financial burden.

The most pressing issue in the nursing care sector is how to secure caregivers. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare estimates that 2.72 million nursing care workers will be necessary in fiscal 2040. Although there is already a serious caregiver shortage, the number must be increased by nearly 600,000. Improvements in wages and working conditions are essential to this end.

While the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) has stated that it will promote the improvement of conditions for medical and nursing care workers, it has not mentioned where the funds for this pledge will come from.

It is the role of politics to draw up a vision for the future and set out how to deal with the mountain of problems.

The government's Comprehensive Reform of Social Security and Tax, agreed to by the ruling and opposition parties in 2012 under the administration of the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan (currently the CDP), probed the issue of financial sources and decided to raise the consumption tax. The plan initiated an "all-generation social security system" that would use part of the money for measures to combat the declining birth rate, and also benefit the working generation.

Since then, however, politicians have sealed the lid on debate over the financial burden. This is nothing short of irresponsible. Politicians should go back to the starting point of the comprehensive reform plans and hold robust debate, free from partisan interests and party policies.