Introduction

Japan has a long history of social policy making, dating back to the end of the 19th century. Shakai seisaku gakkai – the Japanese Association of Social Policy – was established for social policy research as early as 1897 after Japanese scholars had studied foreign social policies (Tamai, 1997). Since its earliest days, Shakai seisaku gakkai has been holding conferences and publishing its findings. These materials are indeed valuable, enabling us to document the upsurge in discussion and debate on the development of social policy in the early part of the 20th century.

The activities of the association in its early years significantly influenced developing ideas towards social policy. In Western societies, such as Britain and Germany, the nature of social policy had already begun to shift from poverty relief to poverty prevention (Thane, 1996). Although policies and practices to relievepoverty were not yet developed fully in Japan at that time, Japanese society enthusiastically pursued ideas of poverty prevention by adapting it to the Japanese model of welfare provision (Tamai, 1992). This Japanese model had two major characteristics:

• • to strengthen the role and function of the family and communities in order to prevent poverty;

• • the important role of individual companies.

In this context, the role of the state had been developed not to replace the existing functions of the family and companies, but to build upon and enclose existing resources within the state umbrella (Tamai, 2001). Social insurance schemes are a case in point, and a point that this chapter explores in detail.

The development process of social policy in the period immediately following the Second World War was again influenced by Western forces, mainly due to the US occupation, which resulted in the introduction of new schemes to enhance social rights among employees and Japanese people in general. Regardless of the strong foreign influence, however, the core of social policy has remained stubbornly unchanged following the pre-war ideal of the Japanese model.

A century has now passed since the dawn of social policy making. At the beginning of the new millennium, Japan is now facing new problems with the breakdown of the pre-existing welfare provided by the family, the community, and companies. The current recession, as well as the structural problems in the Japanese economy and society, has focused attention once more on the debate of establishing a ‘social safety net system’ appropriate to the 21st century (see, for example, Tachibanaki, 2000).