There is no way for me to confirm that, but I got a tip that Nikon has discontinued their pension plan for their employees in the US. I was told that Nikon employees who haven’t turned 65 were offered a lump-sum buyout. Nikon will no longer offer a pension plan for their US employees (a pension plan is not a required benefit in the US and only a few companies are still offering it).
If anyone has more information on this rumor, please post a comment to this post or email me anonymously here.