If the coalmining industry was representative of Chikuho in the period until the 1960s, then welfare has come to be equated with the region since then. This section looks at welfare, its history and the impact it has had on Chikuho since the coal industry went into decline. It is arguably the ascendant ‘industry’ in Chikuho in the 1990s.

Until the Second World War, welfare had never been an integral part of the Japanese politico-economic scenario. It took the Occupation forces' intervention to instigate changes within local mandates concerning welfare. Once the groundwork for a welfare system had been established, the Japanese government made the system idiosyncratically Japanese in content. Japanese cultural standards were introduced into the legislation, which sought to make the family unit, rather than the individual, the basic component of the welfare system. This trend has continued to the present day, although it has become more cynical as the need for welfare cuts has been rationalised at all government levels, and the financial responsibility for the maintenance of welfare programs has been transferred in large part to the families of those who are incapable of supporting themselves.

Legislation introduced since the Second World War in theory has had to conform to, among other clauses, two basic premises written into the Constitution of Japan. Article 25 says, ‘All people shall have the right to maintain minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living’. Another clause states that ‘The State must make every effort to promote and expand social welfare, social security and public health services to cover every aspect of the life of the people.’