2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

Comparative institutional analysis of the Japanese type of welfare pluralism - the importance of social welfare reforms singe 1980s in Japan -

Research Project

Project/Area Number	11620092
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Politics
Research Institution	Ryukoku University
Principal Investigator	ISHIDA Toru Ryukoku Univ., Faculty of Law, professor, 法学部, 教授 (50131313)
Project Period (FY)	1999 – 2000
Keywords	Japanese type of Welfare Society / welfare region / comparative political economy / company welfare / male breddwinner model / social insurance for nursing care
Research Abstract	This research has aimed to analyze the welfare rejime in Japan and to evaluate me rejime in terms of international comparison. The current type of the welfare rejime in Japan may be called "The Japanese Type of Welfare Society". First of all I examined the significance of G. Esping-Andersen's theory of welfare regime. He classifies the welfare rejimes In advanced capitalist courtiers into three types which are Social democratic, Liberal and Conservative. According to his theory, the Japanese welfare rejime is a kind of hybrid variety of welfare rejime. So using my own theoretical framework, I could find "The Japanese Type of Welfare Society" being based on so-called "Company-centered Society" and the Japanese type of the male breadwinner model. Then I analyzed the process of introduction of the social insurance for nursing care in late 1990s which was considered as the first step toward the structural reforms of social security system in Japan. So I concluded that the reform of nursing care system would make- the Japanese welfare rejime come close to Liberal rejime type. But toe conservative characteristic of the welfare rejime in Japan still remains It is unlikely that the Japanese welfare rejime will get close to Social democratic rejime-type in the near future. At the same time I examined the impact of globalization upon the nation states within which the welfare states flowered in advanced capitalist countries after World War II. I showed that there is a possibility of creating the new public sphere opposed to globalization. I will take a next step toward doing research on the sustainable welfare society in which the issues of not only social welfare but also environmental protection should be taken seriously.