Japans Welfare-State Regime : Welfare Politics, Provider and Regulator

In the late 1990s the Korean government made many welfare expansion reforms, while Japanese government adopted the retrenchment social policy. This contrast implies that Welfare Orientalism should come to an end. Uncritical adoption of regime theory to non-European countries has many problems. In order to understand the Japan welfare state regime exactly, I propose the definition of welfare state welfare state as national goal (welfare politics), welfare state as provider (redistributive structure) and welfare state regulator (regulatory structure). After that, I will try to identify the characteristics of Japan regime. It is characterized as a strong state bureaucracy and a weak social democracy; a relatively low level of social expenditure and a high level of expenditure for public works; weak social regulation and strong economic regulation. Finally, I assert that such welfare regime is being challenged by social and economic change at the present time

Change of Attitudes towards Social Policy in Japan in the First Decade of the Twentieth Century: Neoliberalism or Welfare State?

This paper is a translation of chapter 1 in Attitudes toward Welfare in the Stratified Society of Japan, edited by Shogo Takegawa and Sawako Shirahase.The aim of this paper is to clarify the change of social consciousness concerning neoliberalism and the welfare state in Japan in the 2000s. In the first half of the decade, the influence of neoliberalism grew in the field of economic and social policy. Unlike the first half, however, the second half of the 2000s showed slightly different situations: Neoliberalism started to become less influential. This paper discusses the change of social consciousness as the background to the policy changes witnessed in the first half and second half, respectively, of the 2000s. Orientation toward small government (low cost) was high in the first half and remained low in the second half of the decade. In contrast, orientation toward a welfare state (high benefit) approach grew stronger both in the first half and the second half of the decade. Contrary to what is generally believed, the proportion of people who thought highly of initiatives by the public sector gained a majority also in the first half of the 2000s. People who placed importance on initiatives by the private sector increased in the second half of the decade. However, it is reasonable to think that the increase is not because of privatization but rather because of the emergence of the NPOs, NGOs, and social enterprises. However, public opinion was divided into two camps: need principle/universalism and contribution principle/selectivism.This research was funded by grants-in-aid for scientific research (11301006, 16203030, 20223004 and 40197281)

Social capital and perceived health in Japan: An ecological and multilevel analysis

Numerous empirical studies, largely conducted in Western societies, have linked social capital to health outcomes. However, few studies thus far have been conducted in northeastern Asian countries, particularly Japan. Therefore, whether social capital is a determinant of health in Japanese society remains unclear. This study attempted to provide new evidence for the impact of social capital on health in Japan by analyzing original survey data with two different statistical models. In total, 1910 subjects were randomly selected from 210 enumeration districts (EDs) considered in the 2000 population census. In the present study, after excluding missing data on the outcome and predictor variables, we conducted an analysis of 1157 individuals nested within 206 EDs. Ecological and multilevel regression analyses were performed to examine the association between social capital and health, measured by the General Health (GH) perception item (a subcategory of Short Form 36 (SF-36)), and to estimate the impact of aggregated indicators of social capital on health. We developed an original Japanese version of three social capital items (perceived helpfulness, kindness, and greeting) based on previous studies and expert opinions and prepared a social cohesion index that integrated these three social capital items. The ecological model, after adjusting for sociodemographic factors, revealed that perceived helpfulness and greeting, along with the social cohesion index, were observed to have statistically significant associations with GH. The multilevel model, after adjusting for individual social capital perceptions, indicated that the two aggregated indicators of community social capital (kindness and greeting), along with the social cohesion index, showed a statistically significant association with GH. These results showed the existence of a contextual effect of social capital on health outcomes, although individual differences in social capital perceptions in Japan were considered.Social capital Contextual effect Egalitarian society Japan Perceived health