Plus given that after 25 years of paying in anywhere from 11,000 to 70,000 per month (upper end is based on end of career middle management salary) and then getting 160-220,000 per month back, it is not too bad a deal.
Where are you getting this figure? Anyways, that's still not much and one will most certainly need quite a bit of personal savings on top of that. The thing is, I'm not sure that many people (at least those in Tokyo) have the budget to be able to save much these days, asides from paying into pension.
The whole nenkin thing is extremely difficult to assess. I'm hearing mixed things. Some TV shows paint very bleak pictures, and I've read similarly pessimistic articles. My parents think everything will be fine (but then again they're now in their 70's).
I was actually interviewed randomly about this very topic a few days ago outside a train station in Tokyo. Sadly, I just kept saying I don't know. I'm certain they will not use my clip in their feature.